Empathy research is a consumer intelligence methodology designed to surface the emotional drivers, unspoken tensions, and lived experiences that shape consumer behavior. Rather than collecting stated preferences, empathy research asks researchers to inhabit the consumer's perspective, capturing tone, hesitation, contradiction, and context alongside explicit responses. Within qualitative research, it is most commonly applied in brand positioning, concept development, and customer experience work, where understanding the emotional texture of a decision matters as much as understanding the decision itself. When executed well, empathy research produces findings that stakeholders can feel, not just read, making it one of the most persuasive inputs available to insights and CMI teams.