VR could be the most effective catalyst for empathy and connection
Empathy is something the world could use more of. So, naturally, the idea that empathy can be generated within a VR setting has a spawned a whole host of research, discussion and studies.
The main facilitator for empathy in VR is a change in perspective. For instance, you could enter a VR experience as someone who is color blind, impaired or disadvantaged in some way and spend time in their shoes.
There have also been investigations into the impact a VR experience has on your life in the outside world. Take the researchers at Stanford University, for example. They developed a VR experience that provided participants with a means to see firsthand the effects of ocean acidification and excessive CO2 exposure.
Participants reported having internalized the dangers more than they did when reading about it, not to mention it being a wake-up call.
Certain aspects of the design in a VR space, as well as some sophisticated techno-trickery, are at work to amplify and refine the user’s sense of physical relationship to the virtual environment. The higher the quality and actual use of the mechanics behind the experience (e.g., fluid and believable movement), the more likely the participant is to become absorbed in the environment and feel a sense of attachment and care towards it.
VR has a unique ability to bring people together from all walks of life without physically coming into contact. It allows for a sense of inclusiveness with limited bias. This is especially true in a game like VU, where players can work as a unit to reach a mutual goal and help each other along the way.
Of course, it’s not only the medium at work that elicits feelings of empathy within a viewer. The medium just serves as a portal with varying degrees of realism like 1080p, 4k or VR.
During a particularly moving poem or funny movie, or when looking at an inspiring piece of art, humans feel emotion in one way or the other. So it’s up to us as world builders and storytellers to create moving content and help VR become the most intimate medium we’ve seen thus far.
The fact that a person can be placed in and, most importantly, explore and interact directly through a VR world introduces the possibility of stronger attachments and reactions to that world.
This potential could help people better understand the important issues in the real world, build unprejudiced relationships and move towards developing a new way of relating to one another.
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To learn more about the Virtual Universe VR platform and how we’re utilizing blockchain tech to build a leading story-driven world, please visit the websiteor read our whitepaper.
