Virtual Reality as a Medium to Elicit Empathy: A Meta-Analysis.

Sara Ventura, Laura Badenes-Ribera, Rocio Herrero, Ausias Cebolla, Laura Galiana, Rosa Baños

Journal: Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking 2021;23(10):667-676

PMID: 32757952

Abstract

The current meta-analysis aims to investigate and clarify existing research on virtual reality (VR) as a medium to elicit empathy. An exhaustive literature search (updated to February 29, 2020) enabled us to locate seven published articles, yielding a total of nine independent samples. The results reveal statistically significant positive changes in perspective-taking outcomes after VR exposure ( = 0.51 [95 percent CI: 0.15-0.88]) but they did not note in empathy ( = 0.21 [95 percent confidence interval, CI: -0.37-0.79]). A potential limitation of this work is the low number of studies included. Implications and directions for theoretical development and empirical research are also discussed.

Address: Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.; Department of Behavioral Sciences Methodology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.; CIBER of Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN), Madrid, Spain.

DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2019.0681

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MeSH Terms: Empathy, Humans, Virtual Reality, Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy