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Razieh Pourafshari

@rzhprfshr.bsky.social

PhD student in Communication. Studying tech habits and time. The Ohio State University

139 Followers  |  278 Following  |  8 Posts  |  Joined: 05.07.2023
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Posts by Razieh Pourafshari (@rzhprfshr.bsky.social)

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Iran protests live: Tehran threatens protesters with death penalty as casualties rise A human rights group says at least 65 people have been killed since demonstrations began on 28 December

Iran protests latest: Tehran threatens protesters with death penalty as casualties climb

10.01.2026 08:36 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 14    ๐Ÿ” 7    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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And despite it all, this is Tehran ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ท

10.01.2026 23:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7899    ๐Ÿ” 2113    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 126    ๐Ÿ“Œ 95

I feel understood! (they were just more handsome in my imagination when I was reading the book...)

19.12.2025 16:15 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐Ÿงต 1/
๐Ÿšจ New paper out in PLOS ONE! w/ @caropradier.bsky.social @benzpierre.bsky.social @natsush.bsky.social @ipoga.bsky.social @lariviev.bsky.social
We studied 43k authors and 264k citation links in U.S. economics to ask:
๐Ÿ‘‰ Why do some papers cite others?
๐Ÿ”— journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

27.10.2025 18:06 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 32    ๐Ÿ” 23    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

Abstract

When we empathize with someone going through something, we often draw on our past experiences with the someone and the something. These kinds of experiences ground "thick empathy", a form of empathy that has been largely overlooked in the psychology and neuroscience literature. Consider how a mother, empathizing with her daughter about to give birth, can draw on her own experience of childbirth, and her relationship with her daughter, to deeply grasp what her daughter is going through in a way that others who lack those experiences cannot. I argue that thick empathy deserves more empirical attention because it is associated with well-being and helps us build networks of effective mutual social support. My analysis highlights novel risks and dilemmas posed by "empathy machines" that promise to enhance or even replace human empathy and are becoming increasingly popular as a potential solution to widespread loneliness. Even when empathy machines provide value to individuals, their widespread adoption risks imposing collective emotional and epistemic costs that ultimately make it harder for us to empathize well.

Keywords: empathy, understanding, experience, thick description, ethnography, phenomenal knowledge, interpersonal knowledge, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, chatbots

Abstract When we empathize with someone going through something, we often draw on our past experiences with the someone and the something. These kinds of experiences ground "thick empathy", a form of empathy that has been largely overlooked in the psychology and neuroscience literature. Consider how a mother, empathizing with her daughter about to give birth, can draw on her own experience of childbirth, and her relationship with her daughter, to deeply grasp what her daughter is going through in a way that others who lack those experiences cannot. I argue that thick empathy deserves more empirical attention because it is associated with well-being and helps us build networks of effective mutual social support. My analysis highlights novel risks and dilemmas posed by "empathy machines" that promise to enhance or even replace human empathy and are becoming increasingly popular as a potential solution to widespread loneliness. Even when empathy machines provide value to individuals, their widespread adoption risks imposing collective emotional and epistemic costs that ultimately make it harder for us to empathize well. Keywords: empathy, understanding, experience, thick description, ethnography, phenomenal knowledge, interpersonal knowledge, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, chatbots

New preprint: Empathy, Thick and Thin
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

It is perhaps foolhardy to attempt to say something new about a topic as widely studied as empathy. I tried anyway! 1/

11.12.2025 20:50 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 251    ๐Ÿ” 67    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 11    ๐Ÿ“Œ 11

I have been thinking about this all day...this is scary...

08.12.2025 19:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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You may be scrolling through Instagram out of habit and not addiction Almost half of teenagers in Britain say they feel addicted to social media

Cool to see our newest work on social media covered by @the-independent.com! www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

03.12.2025 22:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The number of times I heard you presenting this study! ๐Ÿฅฒ and still can't wait to read this paper! congratulations!

23.11.2025 15:20 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Smartphone habits are stronger in spaces chosen out of habit Scientific Reports - Smartphone habits are stronger in spaces chosen out of habit

STOKED that our paper on smartphone and spatial habits is out in Scientific Reports! ๐ŸŽ‰

Using mobility ๐Ÿƒ and app ๐Ÿ“ฑ data (27,446,977 logs; 7,226 trip questionnaires) we found that smartphone habits are stronger in habitually traveled and visited spaces ๐Ÿก

Personal thread below!

rdcu.be/eQ7q0

21.11.2025 16:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 22    ๐Ÿ” 6    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Woooooooooo ๐Ÿ‘ Congratulations ๐ŸŽŠ

11.11.2025 17:09 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The BEST part of my summer! โ˜€๏ธ๐Ÿ’™

12.08.2025 14:06 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

so this paper from my friend @sakshi-bhalla.bsky.social feels so spot on when she told me about it this morning! Such a thoughtful look at how Illinoisโ€™ media literacy mandate plays out in real classrooms!

11.08.2025 17:17 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

One of the things I keep thinking aboutโ€”even two months after ICA Mobile Preconferenceโ€”is our workshop on digital disconnection policies. We had to think about kidsโ€™ education, ages, and contextsโ€”and we kept circling back to the role of "teachers" who would actually deliver those policies!

11.08.2025 17:09 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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LOVING @mqrmobile.bsky.social and @joebayer.bsky.social 's Mobile Top Paper on theorizing affordances of connectivity!
@icamobile.bsky.social

15.06.2025 21:32 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 10    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
The four conceptualizations of social connection Nature Reviews Psychology - The term โ€˜social connectionโ€™ is operationalized differently across disparate strands of research. In this Review, Baek et al. highlight four distinct uses of...

Wrapping up #ica25 with @rzhprfshr.bsky.social presenting our work with @joebayer.bsky.social reviewing the research under the broad umbrella of โ€œsocial connectionโ€. And perfect timing because the paper was published TODAY at @natrevpsychol.nature.com ๐Ÿฅณ rdcu.be/erayE

16.06.2025 21:14 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 38    ๐Ÿ” 16    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Setting up a Qualtrics workflow to send daily survey links via text message to participants in a contact directory

17.01.2025 00:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The tradeoff of solitude? Restoration and relatedness across shades of solitude Social interaction and solitude entail tradeoffs. Communicate Bond Belong (CBB) theory holds that social interaction can foster relatedness with others at the cost of social energy, whereas solitude c...

Excited to share my latest on solitude in @plosone.bsky.social! With Scott Campbell, I leveraged communicate bond belong theory to investigate how different shades of solitude ๐Ÿšฃ balance energy restoration ๐Ÿ”‹ and relatedness with others ๐Ÿซ‚ for well-being ๐Ÿ™‚: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

05.12.2024 20:36 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0