Is Virtual Reality Uniquely Effective in Eliciting Empathy?

Abstract

It has been argued that virtual reality is uniquely effective at eliciting empathy, because it is the best technology for putting an audience "into the shoes" of another person. Is there really a difference between a virtual reality experience and reading an article when it comes to inducing empathy? In this experimental study, we gave participants a pre-test and post-test survey regarding their empathy, attitudes and intentions toward immigrants, refugees and endangered animals. Between the surveys, randomly selected participants engaged with a virtual reality experience relating to the U.S.-Mexican border, and others read an article on the same topic. A virtual reality experience increased participants' empathy toward immigrants, led to more positive attitudes toward immigration and increased the participants' stated likelihood of taking political action in favor of immigrants. However, in almost all cases these increases were statistically indistinguishable from the increase due to reading a print article. No evidence was found for a strong, diffuse effect of virtual reality beyond the specific subject of the virtual reality experience itself.

The Limited Benefits of Using Virtual Reality 360° Videos to Promote Empathy and Charitable Giving

“…But despite its popularity, experimental evidence for the empathy-building efficacy of VR generally, and 360° video specifically, is inconsistent. Although some VR interventions have led to increases in prosocial attitudes (Bujić et al, 2020;Markowitz et al, 2018) and increases in self-reported empathy (Bunn & Terpstra, 2009;Cohen et al, 2021;Formosa et al, 2018), these positive effects do not appear to exceed more traditional and low cost interventions, such as asking people to imagine what it would be like to experience someone else's situation (Jones & Sommer, 2018) or taking part in realworld role-play (Hargrove et al, 2020).…”

Virtual Reality and Charitable Giving: The Influence of Space, Presence, and Attention

“…While the above-mentioned studies suggest VR has the potential to enhance emotional empathy, other research has yielded conflicting results. These studies report that beneficial outcomes brought by VR exposure do not outweigh more conventional and affordable interventions, including having participants role-play in the actual world (Hargrove et al, 2020) or being asked to picture themselves in someone else's shoes (Jones & Sommer, 2018). Oh et al (2016) and Tong et al (2017) demonstrated that VR was unsuccessful in enhancing empathetic concerns toward the elderly or people with chronic pain.…”

The influence of Survivor stories and a virtual reality representation of a residential school on reconciliation in Canada

“…In virtual reality, people can stand in the shoes of another person and approximate others' experiences (de la Peña et al, 2010;Kalyanaraman et al, 2010;Gehlbach et al, 2015;Herrera et al, 2018;Shin, 2018;Ingram et al, 2019;Barreda-Ángeles et al, 2020;Ventura et al, 2020). Such virtual experiences are thought to affect key predictors of intergroup relations, namely empathic concern (Kalyanaraman et al, 2010;Gehlbach et al, 2015;Kleinsmith et al, 2015;Sundar et al, 2017;Herrera et al, 2018;Jones and Sommer, 2018;Ingram et al, 2019;van Damme et al, 2019;Barreda-Ángeles et al, 2020;Ventura et al, 2020;Martingano et al, 2021Martingano et al, , 2022 and outgroup warmth (Hasler et al, 2014;Chen et al, 2021a,b;Chen and Ibasco, 2023;Tassinari et al, 2023;Branham, 2024). We broadened our focus to also include privity and political solidarity.…”

“…Some studies support these ideas (Kalyanaraman et al, 2010;Kleinsmith et al, 2015;Sundar et al, 2017;Herrera et al, 2018;Ingram et al, 2019;Ventura et al, 2020;Martingano et al, 2022) and others even go further, demonstrating that virtual reality outperforms less immersive media in causing people to feel empathy toward an outgroup (Herrera et al, 2018). However, others report that virtual reality does not increase empathy (Gehlbach et al, 2015;Jones and Sommer, 2018;van Damme et al, 2019;Barreda-Ángeles et al, 2020) or work better than less immersive approaches (Herrera et al, 2018;Jones and Sommer, 2018;Martingano et al, 2021Martingano et al, , 2022. To help resolve this inconsistency, Martingano et al (2021) synthesized the findings of 43 studies involving 5,644 participants via metaanalysis.…”