Through Pink and Blue Glasses

The Curious Case of the Transdiegetic Cow, or a Mission to Foster Other-Oriented Empathy Through Virtual Reality

“…In fact, it is a considerably robust and often-employed persuasive appeal in face-to-face interventions and legacy media such as books and television [6,7,30,62]. In parallel, empathy is a well-known concept in HCI, and not exclusively for its role in understanding users and their contexts [68], but also as a desirable outcome [37,44,51]. Particularly, designers and researchers have begun to explore the empathic capacities of games and virtual reality experiences (e.g., [2,8,22,23,32,44,51]).…”

“…In parallel, empathy is a well-known concept in HCI, and not exclusively for its role in understanding users and their contexts [68], but also as a desirable outcome [37,44,51]. Particularly, designers and researchers have begun to explore the empathic capacities of games and virtual reality experiences (e.g., [2,8,22,23,32,44,51]). However, we also discerned criticism regarding the employment of virtual reality for the arousal of empathy (e.g., [25,26,65]).…”

“…We discerned a growing interest in the employment of virtual reality to foster empathy (e.g. [67]), often resulting in virtual reality games that allow users to virtually inhabit another in distress as a means to address aspects of genderism [51], migration [44], psychosis [55], and walking impairment [54]. The recent rise of empathy-arousing virtual reality games may have been fueled by the claims of an "ultimate empathy machine" [49], with Nonny de la Peña arguing that it "is such a visceral empathy generator [...] it can make people feel in a way that nothing, no other platform I've ever worked in can successfully do in this way" [66].…”

“…Empathy has distinct benefits in areas such as nursing [15], conflict resolutions [6], and in HCI practices [68]. Accordingly, designers, artists, and researchers alike have keen interest in exploring ways to foster empathy using immersive technologies [17,44,51,69]. A growing body of work focuses on virtual reality for its potential to be an "ultimate empathy machine" [49].…”

“…A growing body of work focuses on virtual reality for its potential to be an "ultimate empathy machine" [49]. So far, the vast majority of interactive empathy-arousing virtual reality experiences gravitate towards the arousal of self-oriented empathic states, rather than other-oriented empathic states, typically by offering users the ability to virtually inhabit the other in distress, similar to the catchphrase of 'standing in another's shoes' (e.g., [36,44,51,69]). While such experiences are viscerally engaging and may have users feeling the struggles of another, they also introduce the risk that users may think and feel as if the experiences are their own, rather than those of the other in distress [44].…”