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Enhancing Empathy in Virtual Reality: An Embodied Approach to Mindset Modulation

Seoyeon Bae, Yoon Kyung Lee, Jungcheol Lee, Jaeheon Kim, Haeseong Jeon, Seung-Hwan Lim, Byung-Cheol Kim, Sowon Hahn

TL;DR

This study tackles how to enhance empathy by combining growth-mindset induction with immersive VR. It introduces Our Neighbor Hero, an embodied VR experience where players identify with a superhero to adopt a prosocial self-concept through structured mission sequences. In a between-subject experiment with 54 college students, participants who received growth-mindset training plus VR showed higher empathic motives than VR alone, though empathy and hypothetical prosocial behavior showed no significant between-group differences; post-experiment interviews corroborated perceived educational impact. The findings suggest that integrating mindset training with VR-based empathy content can effectively elevate empathic motivation and hold promise for educational and organizational programs aimed at improving collaboration and social cooperation.

Abstract

A growth mindset has shown promising outcomes for increasing empathy ability. However, stimulating a growth mindset in VR-based empathy interventions is under-explored. In the present study, we implemented prosocial VR content, Our Neighbor Hero, focusing on embodying a virtual character to modulate players' mindsets. The virtual body served as a stepping stone, enabling players to identify with the character and cultivate a growth mindset as they followed mission instructions. We considered several implementation factors to assist players in positioning within the VR experience, including positive feedback, content difficulty, background lighting, and multimodal feedback. We conducted an experiment to investigate the intervention's effectiveness in increasing empathy. Our findings revealed that the VR content and mindset training encouraged participants to improve their growth mindsets and empathic motives. This VR content was developed for college students to enhance their empathy and teamwork skills. It has the potential to improve collaboration in organizational and community environments.

Enhancing Empathy in Virtual Reality: An Embodied Approach to Mindset Modulation

TL;DR

This study tackles how to enhance empathy by combining growth-mindset induction with immersive VR. It introduces Our Neighbor Hero, an embodied VR experience where players identify with a superhero to adopt a prosocial self-concept through structured mission sequences. In a between-subject experiment with 54 college students, participants who received growth-mindset training plus VR showed higher empathic motives than VR alone, though empathy and hypothetical prosocial behavior showed no significant between-group differences; post-experiment interviews corroborated perceived educational impact. The findings suggest that integrating mindset training with VR-based empathy content can effectively elevate empathic motivation and hold promise for educational and organizational programs aimed at improving collaboration and social cooperation.

Abstract

A growth mindset has shown promising outcomes for increasing empathy ability. However, stimulating a growth mindset in VR-based empathy interventions is under-explored. In the present study, we implemented prosocial VR content, Our Neighbor Hero, focusing on embodying a virtual character to modulate players' mindsets. The virtual body served as a stepping stone, enabling players to identify with the character and cultivate a growth mindset as they followed mission instructions. We considered several implementation factors to assist players in positioning within the VR experience, including positive feedback, content difficulty, background lighting, and multimodal feedback. We conducted an experiment to investigate the intervention's effectiveness in increasing empathy. Our findings revealed that the VR content and mindset training encouraged participants to improve their growth mindsets and empathic motives. This VR content was developed for college students to enhance their empathy and teamwork skills. It has the potential to improve collaboration in organizational and community environments.
Paper Structure (29 sections, 1 figure, 1 table)

This paper contains 29 sections, 1 figure, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Empathy Intervention and Growth Mindset
  4. Virtual Reality for Enhancing Empathy
  5. Design
  6. Scenario
  7. Mindsets-related Considerations
  8. Virtual Character Setting
  9. The Content Sequences
  10. Implementational Considerations
  11. Positive Feedback with Interactions
  12. Difficulty and Duration
  13. Apparatus
  14. Experiment
  15. Results
  16. ...and 14 more sections

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: Mean empathic motives ratings between participants who received growth mindset training and VR experience and those experienced only VR.