Virtual Reality and Empathy

Posted Dec 17, 2024 Updated Dec 19, 2024

By Masaya Narita

2 min read

Today, I experienced VR Empathy. There are growing number of ways of Virtual Reality applications besides popular uses like gaming and vr chat. The immersiveness provided by VR can move viewers more deeply compared to watching videos on a 2D display.

About VR Empathy

VR Empathy is the concept that promoting peoples’s empathy by reploduce other one’s sight or experience utlizing VR technology. It can be said VR is superior to conventional display like 2D LCD for story telling in that VR offers immersive experience. The following TED Talks by Chris Milk also refers how VR is useful for promoting empathy[1].

Experience

I watched 360° video reliving the experience of Sidra, a 12 year old girl living in a Syrian refugee camp[2]. What I saw was completely different from my daily life. The video was purely about her actual life from the girl’s point of view rather than conveying the harsh living conditions of the refugee camp.I was shocked by the content of the video, but I think it was not only because I was saddened by her situation, but rather because seeing her very-real daily life scene reminded me that the refugee issue is a real issue.

Thoughts

I was realy fascinated the possibility that people pay more attention to problems that are not familiar with them by VR Empathy. However, I found some problems on VR Empathy, which is due to VR’s feature of providing a realistic experience, for better or worse.
The experience in VR is very immersive, but the emphasis on recreating the circumstances and experiences of others may make the content overly stimulating to the viewer or cause past trauma. It is important to be faithful to the actual experience, but it would be a mistake to limit the number of viewers because of it.
It is also important to note that no matter how much VR is used, the images are only a picture of one aspect of a real-world problem. As Jean Baudrillard once claimed that the Gulf War never happened in his book[3], we must understand the danger of reality being overshadowed by realistic media.

References

[1] Milk, C. (2015, March). How virtual reality can create the ultimate empathy machine [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_milk_how_virtual_reality_can_create_the_ultimate_empathy_machine

[2] Within. (2016, January 28). Clouds Over Sidra [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO1BTgtKVp8

[3] Baudrillard, J. (1995). The Gulf War did not take place (P. Patton, Trans.). Indiana University Press.

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