Being virtually with others makes me happy - The influence of immersion, social and non social video contents on positive emotion induction
Abstract
Virtual Reality (VR) has great potential for inducing positive emotions. In this context, the level of immersion required remains unclear, as various devices and levels of immersion have been previously included under the term “VR”. Additionally, virtual nature contents have been predominantly used, yet social contents can influence induced positive emotions and arousal. Thus, the present study compared the efficiency for inducing positive emotions of a highly immersive Head-Mounted Display (HMD) to a less immersive computer screen. Eight 360° videos with natural or social contents were employed. 26 undergraduate students (22.7 ± 2.69 yr) participated in the study consisting of watching videos with social and natural contents on computer screen and under an HMD, while their skin conductance and heart rate were collected. At the end of each video, participants reported their subjective emotions. Main results showed that participant experienced the HMD presentation as more positive (p=0.003) and arousing (p=0.05) compared to the screen presentation. Videos of social content also appeared as more positive (p=0.045) and arousing (p<0.001) compared to natural contents. The physiological measures varied according to the type of stimuli (natural vs social content)
only while viewing videos in the HMD condition. These are encouraging results for fostering positive emotions with highly immersive VR, while suggesting the need to vary video contents employed.
Domains
PsychologyOrigin | Files produced by the author(s) |
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