Abstract
Virtual Reality (VR) has often been referred to as an “empathy machine.” This is mostly because it can induce empathy through embodiment experiences in outgroup membership. However, the potential of intergroup contact with an outgroup avatar in VR to increase empathy is less studied. Even though intergroup contact literature suggests that less threatening and more prosocial emotions are the key to understanding why intergroup contact is a powerful mean to decrease prejudice, few studies have investigated the effect of intergroup contact on empathy in VR. In this study, we developed a between-participants design to investigate how VR can be used to create a positive intergroup contact with a member of a stigmatized outgroup (ethnic minority) and present the results of the effect of intergroup contact in VR on empathy. Sixty four participants experienced either positive contact (i.e., equal intergroup status, collaborative) with a black (experimenter-controlled) avatar (experimental condition) or no intergroup contact (i.e., ingroup contact with a white avatar; control condition), with situational empathy (personal distress and empathic interest) being measured through a self-report questionnaire up to a week before and right after the VR contact experience. The experiment showed that satisfying degrees of body ownership of participants’ own avatar and co-presence with the contacted avatar can be achieved in simple and universally accessible virtual environments such as AltspaceVR. The results indicated that while VR intergroup contact had no significant direct effect on empathy, exploratory analyses indicated that post-intervention empathic interest increased with stronger feelings of co-presence in the intergroup contact condition.
Highlights
Intergroup Contact and EmpathyThere is a massive amount of research on the intergroup contact hypothesis
Considering the limited evidence of text-based CMC or e-contact serving as an empathy machine in intergroup relations, in this study, we suggest looking at whether a Virtual Reality (VR) contact characterized by a higher degree of immersion than any other forms of CMC contact may be used as a successful tool for increasing empathy
We explore the potential of direct positive intergroup VR contact to affect situational affective empathy, when no perspective-taking instruction is introduced
Summary
Intergroup Contact and EmpathyThere is a massive amount of research on the intergroup contact hypothesis (for meta-analyses see Pettigrew and Tropp, 2006, 2008). Intergroup Contact, Empathy, Virtual Reality independent samples and 13,343 participants), and increasing empathy and perspective taking (9 studies, 14 independent samples and 2,362 participants) Their results revealed mediational effects for all three of these mediators, with emotional mediators (i.e., anxiety reduction and empathy) outperforming the mediation effect of increased knowledge. Research on intergroup contact and empathy has largely been inspired by the affective state conceptualization suggested by Batson and his colleagues (Batson et al, 1987, 1997a,b, 2005) In this paradigm, empathy consists of two distinct vicarious empathetic reactions, namely empathic interest and personal distress in a specific situation (Batson et al, 1987). Studies in different contexts have shown that affective empathy explains the effects of intergroup contact (especially quality) on adolescents’ intended bystander behavior among White British adolescents (Abbott and Cameron, 2014), positive attitudes toward diversity in organizations (Brouwer and Boros, 2010), helping intentions and increased commitment to help Black African Americans in a White American sample (Johnston and Glasford, 2018), and on the positive outgroup attitudes, perceived outgroup variability and less negative action tendencies among colored high school children in South Africa (Swart et al, 2011), to list just a few
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