Playground of Empathy’s Inclusive Tech

Polarization limits human potential: it is a public health burden for all, not just the most marginalized. It slows our economy, limits the human capacity for innovation and creativity, and puts democracy at risk. Anti-bias programs are an urgent need, but current cognitive training doesn’t deliver robust results. 

Research suggests that actual meaningful exposure between people - from a first person POV - is the antidote to a polarized and systemically biased world. We share the experience of another person as your own, with sufficient repetition and subjective realism to impact behavior. 

This project will deploy an online experience and mobile app, ‘empathable’, to bridge the chasm between learning bias didactically, and actually awakening to our biases. 

Through 'Playground', participants measurably grow their advocacy. Scaling this experience, increasing content and reach to organizations globally, holds the potential to significantly contribute to the equality of human flourishing within our lifetime.

Systemic inequality is an organizational, educational, and public health challenge. With two decades of global democracy in decline (according to Larry Diamond/the Journal of Democracy), and 100,000+ ethnic conflicts fatalities in 2020, 'COVID-19 has unleashed a parallel pandemic of dangerous disinformation, hate speech and [ethnic] violence...' (UNESCO).

With ubiquitous overwhelm, the Sisyphean task of disarming bias must leverage those with parallel motivations to improve. The benefit of organizational diversity, both well-known and easier to define, makes organizations an efficient entry point to systemic improvement. The think tank, Coqual, highlights that highly biased organizations show, '34% [of marginalized individuals]... withheld new ideas and 31% said they plan to leave... within a year.' Conversely, inclusive organizations show a 60% increase in performance, and an 87% increase in better decision making, according to Forbes.

It has been estimated that organizations invest nearly $8 billion each year in [anti-bias] training... [albeit] not effective for increasing manager diversity.(Carter et al 2020). Through a comprehensive review, the majority of anti-bias training - which applies a method that can be described as, 'here's why you're biased and here are the statistics to prove it', method - is not only failing us. It is causing dangerous backlash.

A science based tool, inducing personalized, emotionally compelling connection to difference via point-of-view interactions/self-reflections. We strengthen participant advocacy towards others by pairing emotional- and identity-based granularity. By walking in another’s shoes, you gain chances to hear how society treats others, while imagining how this impacts their own emotions. 

Playground developed this experience with IASLab, renowned for their transformative approach to developing systems-level models of the brain mechanisms underlying human affect and emotion, and their relation to motivation and other psychological phenomena.

A (Payscale) study of 140,000 employees in the U.S., indicates at least 20% of this population conceptually understands bias but does not acknowledge it in their own organization.

By personalizing DEI knowledge, it can be integrated into teams, providing the psychological safety essential to inclusive cultures, while receiving 'buy-in' from metric driven stakeholders. This method posits a highly innovative and break-through innovation in the potential effectiveness of anti-bias training. 

We currently share four specific 'empathable’ experiences of marginalized individuals: A black, queer, first-generation woman. A non-binary, white professor in their late 20's. A trans man of mixed racial background. A white woman who is visibly pregnant. 

Yet, with four identities alone, we've already impacted 10,000+ people in 2020.

First, we express our solution’s service to marginalized communities. Marginalized groups are continuously at an organizational disadvantage through bias. To put this in measurable terms, we know that women receive roughly 82 cents on the dollar compared to men, and there is a racial pay gap at over 30% between Black POC and their White peers. These two measurable inequalities ripple through all harder to measure elements of organizational thriving, including hiring practices, promotion, and a more tenuous position within power dynamics, all rooting from a lack of inclusion and belonging.

When marginalized populations take part in our experiences, involving real stories featuring persons with similar identities, it contextualizes and grounds the legitimacy of their own often relatable experience of how society has responded to them. Feeling more seen, heard and justified in our emotions is both cathartic, engages healthier dialogues that disarm the effects of imposter syndrome, and becomes community building with peers in forging a sense of organizational community. Anti-bias training generally focuses on informing or instructing those already centered by society, and leaves the wellness aspect of marginalized communities completely unaddressed in their curriculum. We have received the feedback continually from marginalized individuals, that our immersive, experiential learning feels healing, while helping contextualize to their peers, previously expressed sentiments towards the need of greater inclusion in their team practices. In summary, our solution provides marginalized groups with three very direct benefits: it serves as a reference point to contextualize their expressed but often unheard viewpoints on previous scenarios in their work or school life, it removes barriers to achieve a deeper sense of belonging, and creates a greater psychological safety and efficacy towards their community building.

Second, Playground’s experiences also serve those who society centers, eg. White, heterosexual men and women, though also marginalized; namely, the sizable portion of these populations who are ready to change, have previously volunteered to attend informative trainings, but as a result of most trainings, lack context and exposure to know how personalize and integrate their learning.

To illustrate the population being referred to: in conversations with hundred's of directors of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice (also known as DEI, D&I, EDI, DIB, JEDI, etc), we have been told that in 2020, DEI staff and Employee Resource Group (ERG) leaders have been overwhelmed with White employees asking them, ‘how can I do more for BLM?’, or, ‘can you tell me what to do to not be racist/sexist/gender non-affirming?’. 

This specific 'well-meaning' and motivated part of the population does not do well in speaking up and remain the silent middle on the spectrum of bias, because their conceptual understanding of prejudiced behavior does not successfully make them comfortable nor willing to speak up for the rights of their marginalized colleagues when such behavior occurs either subtly, or even blatantly in their environment. These White populations within organizations, with motivation to improve, but lacking the skills to do so, are a key factor in macro organizational change.

Third, Playground’s solution will serve the global community of culture and bias-researchers both in academia and in the field, with a more enriched understanding of alternative approaches to bias intervention, more ecologically valid experimental design, and new perspectives on categorizing sub-populations within a culture, to the benefit of increasing overall environmental impact.

Collaborating on experiential studies with the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Lab at Northeastern University (IASLab), our initial measurements of lab members taking part in Playground’s immersive ‘walk in my shoes’ experiences, showed sizably larger shifts in psychophysiological response (through ambulatory sensors, eg. heart rate, sweat rate, and temperature shifts) than in many standard research experiments purposely designed to evoke emotional responses. Internal responses could in some cases, be more likened to that of watching a riveting soccer match than a perspective taking experience. Through our lit reviews on experiential interventions with IASLab, ongoing dialogue and grant writing with IASLab colleagues and Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, our interest from and discussions with Dr. Banaji at Harvard Universities most prominent bias-research lab, our organizational insights from behavioral science advisor, Matt Wallaert, and feedback from discussions and sharing in the field, we have reached a confidence in our theory of change, which we will aim to prove with overwhelming certainty, or shift as necessary to become more accurate in the years to come. This theory states that a significant shift in overall organizational culture can only happen authentically, when there are at least two people in every room, comfortable and willing to speak up for the rights of their marginalized peers. This is why before, during, and after Playground’s experiential learning sessions, we measure a 'two in the room' oriented advocacy, through psychometric and sociometric surveys which show measurable increase in the population of almost allies becoming active advocates, and climate surveys which are meant to study the benefit to marginalized individuals within organizations. The longitudinal data which stems from sharing these experiences and our ongoing interdisciplinary research we hope, will have significant influence on the science community.

Biases towards all marginalized groups in healthcare, education, and workplace settings aren't resulting from lack of generalized empathy, but rather, a specific lack of exposure to difference. The current $8b  organizational investment nationally in anti-bias training is largely ineffective, because fact-based didactic, often 'one-off' training, remains conceptual/forgettable at best and at worst, creates defensive backlash. 

Our scalable technology innovates and replaces the outdated 'training'  approach through experiential learning of subjective-realism inducing POV reenactments, sharing real moments in real marginalized individual's lives. When anti-bias concepts are personalized, they become actionable and turn well-meaning empaths into active advocates, transforming organizational D&I.

We've shared our facilitated online-experience with 10,000+ individuals within 100+ organizations/institutions, and specifically 100+ directors of D&I -- while receiving invitations from audiences of the Boston Museum of Science, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education Conference, Cisco, Ford, and Deloitte. We have also received a grant from the Harvard Culture Lab Innovation Fund, chosen by their council of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. 

In the fall of 2020, WillowTree Apps (award winning app developers for HBO and National Geographic) acknowledged the  the efficacy of this program, moving it beyond the pilot stage by providing $540,000 in-kind to produce and an immersive IOS/Android app for Playground. Using the same POV content as the successful online experience, we are now independently completing design elements for refinement purposes. This automated, scalable version, called 'empathable', will begin beta testing summer 2021.

Most formal and informal learning technologies focus on teaching lessons through written concepts or describing scenarios. Both are less ineffective methods for social learning. Playground innovates learning social concepts by making them experiential, similar to how we normally engage in real-life social learning interactions.

Specifically, the concept of “walking in my shoes” has over 400 million search results, but 99% of those are making a suggestion. We offer the actual opportunity. As an online experience and mobile app, we bridge the chasm between hearing the bias statistics and actually awakening to our biases.

Playground allows any person, anywhere in the world to experience the life of someone who is entirely different. It has demonstrated efficacy at changing people who feel overwhelmed by polarizing circumstances and environments to more hopeful, willing participants in solution generation to build equity.

Darnella Frazier (who filmed George Floyd's murder) has shown us the difference between hearing opinion, based on an unseen story, and seeing the story ourselves. This is why POV reenactments affect the viewer differently. 

Through a unique fusion of design with neuroscience in this first-of-its-kind, DEI immersive app intervention, we innovate in user experience by allowing users the opportunity to implement immersive learning daily, just a few minutes per day.This is a method proven to be more effective in habit forming than a one-off training. More generally, our work holds great promise for increasing the utilization of both public spaces and digital media to teach the tools of human flourishing through emotional education.

Currently we’ve reached 10,000+ participants, and over 100+ organizations, 40% pro bono. This includes 100+ leaders who we engaged on the importance of experiential learning for organizations. Of note were invitations from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education Conference - AISNE - the Society for Neuroscience and Creativity - with the Chiefs of Staff at MGH - Ford, Cisco, and audiences with the Boston Museum of Science. 

One year following the app launch, we aim to scale to 50,000 participants annually, or 5,000 per month. Growth may also become accelerated, as, in 2021, we’ll be conducting a pilot feasibility study with Deloitte. An efficacious result could lead to roll-out conversations to all of their employees regionally, nationally, then beyond. With 100,000 employees nationally/330,000 globally, this exemplifies the potential impact experiential learning can have on an industry within 1-2 years. 

By year five, with support from the MIT Solve community, our goal will be to reach five million users annually, and 40% of those participants without-cost in places of learning. To dream big, impact to millions must also be balanced with direct impact to those within areas of great conflict, in the middle of the spectrum of localized biases. Empowering their agency towards depolarization would make the program’s indirect impact through the media, palpable beyond measure. What Dr. Fishkin methods of Deliberative Democracy have accomplished in controlled environments, we aim to accomplish at scale, walking many in turmoil, in each other’s shoes annually, by year five.

I: Survey-this will tell us if participants are actually living differently after the intervention and how much longer after the intervention are their lives still changed. We aim for habit forming to have permanent effects, and aim for long term study through the app.

II: Extent of deployment-The number of people reached as an indicator of resonance with stakeholders. It means that people who have used it are telling others.

III: Increased funding- This would mean that people are seeing the value, making revenue an impact performance indicator. It would also enable expansion and refinement, increased accessibility for low-resources settings, addition of new identities.

To show our theory of change is effective, we measure participant comfort and willingness to speak up, and have developed a pre- and post-experiential survey, measuring emotional granularity, affect, clarity & attention, perspective taking, climate, state empathy measure (affective, cognitive, associative), goals & implementation intentions, follow through, psychological safety, and demographics. It’s in our DNA to develop and adjust our measurements as we learn more.

We’ve also received invitations into discussions with directors of the Templeton World Foundation, and StandTogether.org (within the Charles Koch Foundation) after sharing at conferences where they participated. Through their empirical experience, they now wish to know why this is so powerful, to benefit future scientists in reconsidering the design of experiments to apply experiential mechanisms. Both foundations encourage us to submit grant applications to document the design mechanisms we’ve applied to advance intervention work.

6 Full Time Staff

4 Interns

16 advisors, active on a monthly or weekly basis

Life-long, I’ve designed bridges across nuanced cultural perspectives: Son of a Korean refugee and Jewish zen master, absorbing transporting experiences singing at the MET, learning resilience as an abuse survivor. Through living in four countries, I speak five languages, while working on experiences with Disney, Google, the Diabetes Fund, Scandinavian governments, and founding the world’s top-rated escape game. I’m Design-Lead at the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Lab (Northeastern University), and advise on digital-experience for Dr. Mahzarin Banaji, pioneer in implicit bias research, who approved our theory of change. 

There’s no better strategist for experiential scientific approaches in emotion prediction than working with Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: among the top 1% most cited scientists globally for her revolutionary research in neuropsychology, with appointments at Harvard Medical School, and as Chief Science Officer for the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior at Harvard. 

Dallas Ducar advises on our gender-expansive experiences as a prominent trans mental health practitioner within the Transgender Health Program at MGH, and CEO of Transhealth Northampton. 

In story-framing, we’re blessed by our Narrative Advisor, Lulu Miller, Peabody award winning science writer, and co-host of Radiolab on NPR. 

Jasmine Hamilton advises on organizational policy, with interdisciplinary research experience at the WHO, and is a Senior Policy Advisor at the federal public service.

Our marketing and business strategy is guided by Joel Mier, former Director of Marketing at Netflix, and senior business analyst at Adobe, and supported by Matt Wallaert, chief Behavioral Scientist at Frog Design. This team is truly exceptional.

Our advisors and team members are diverse across race, gender, age, body-type, sexual orientation, neurologically, physical-ability, and religion. In our internship selection process, we’ve deliberately selected students born in Ethiopia, Iran, Japan, China, and Ghana. This is because variation is not only the norm and to be celebrated in our genetic diversity, but in every sense, our diverse identities lead us to thrive and can be seen as a celebration. As a founder who identifies as male, my heroes and guides are female pioneers, such as Lisa, Mahzarin, Dallas, and Jasmine, all from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Our team culture includes and rituals of 1:1 listening-meetings with team members and leadership, meant to hold space for team members to voice their viewpoints uninterrupted. 

The individual identities created for Playground also strive to represent all lenses of identity in many combinations. It is our goal to not only consider principles of DEI in our experiences, but also how partnerships with identity focused advocacy groups can promote greater attention to their work, expanding their audiences and donor base. We reach out to advocacy-based non profits weekly, aiming to forge brand partnerships that will lift all of our work together.