Virtual Reality and Immersive Tendency for Presence and Empathy

This study explored the use of immersive virtual reality enhancing university students’ presence and empathy in relation to their immersive tendencies. With a first-person narrative delivered through a head-mounted display, a high-immersion virtual reality (VR) was expected to provide engaging embodied experiences, impacting the way students develop feelings of presence and empathy toward a VR movie. To test this, we conducted an experimental study on 48 university students, examining the effects of different VR immersion and participants’ immersive tendency levels on presence and empathy. We found that high-immersion VR increases levels of perceived presence. Additionally, although immersive tendency does not affect presence, it significantly impacts empathy development.