Empathic "People Person"

Participants will relate more readily to a test moderator who is an empathic individual. This may not be all that critical during the test session itself, especially if the session requires little probing or exploration on the part of the test moderator. However, empathy can play a major part during the debriefing session when the test moderator is trying to elicit a participant's innermost thoughts and feelings about the previous two hours of work. Participants will tend to hold back if they feel that the test moderator cannot relate to their
particular situation, this being especially true if the session was unusually frustrating or difficult.