Simulated cognitive empathy as an emerging tool for socio-ecological research

Abstract Cognitive empathy is the ability to imagine the world from the perspective of another human, organism, or more-than-human entity. Experiments in cognitive empathy are increasingly used to understand complex socio-ecological systems, for example through role playing games, or interviews with participants while they are in character as another person or biota. Previous research using cognitive empathy as a methodology has used human participants, but advances in artificial intelligence technology now make it possible to use computationally-driven, simulated cognitive empathy (SCE). In this article we highlight a range of opportunities for SCE to improve our understanding of human and more-than-human perspectives within complex socio-ecological systems. We demonstrate the potential of SCE through three experiments conducted with readily available artificial intelligence technology, and discuss the advantages and pitfalls of SCE approaches compared to human cognitive empathy. SCE will never be able to fully simulate the depth of human experience, so will not replace human participants in all research studies. SCE brings risks of bias and under-representation, particularly for Indigenous and minority groups who are critical in solving socio-ecological challenges. Nonetheless, the opportunities for scalability, replicability, and flexibility provided by SCE will add a complementary tool to improve understanding of how human and more-than-human actors behave and interact.