How can VR enhance body ownership and empathy for others?

1 What is body ownership?

Body ownership is the feeling that your body belongs to you and that you can control it. It is a fundamental aspect of your self-awareness and identity. However, body ownership is not fixed or static. It can be influenced by sensory, cognitive, and emotional factors. For example, if you look at a rubber hand being stroked while your own hand is hidden and stroked in the same way, you might start to feel that the rubber hand is part of your body. This is called the rubber hand illusion, and it shows how body ownership can be manipulated by visual and tactile cues.

2 How can VR manipulate body ownership?

VR can create more powerful and complex illusions of body ownership than the rubber hand experiment. By using head-mounted displays, motion tracking, and haptic feedback, VR can provide you with a virtual body that matches or differs from your real one. You can see, move, and feel your virtual body as if it were your own. This can create a sense of presence and embodiment in the virtual environment. VR can also manipulate body ownership by changing the appearance, perspective, or actions of your virtual body. For example, you can swap bodies with another person, experience the world from a different height or gender, or perform actions that are impossible or unusual in reality.

4 What is empathy?

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of another person. It is a key component of your social and emotional intelligence. Empathy helps you to communicate, cooperate, and care for others. It also helps you to avoid or resolve conflicts, prejudice, or discrimination. However, empathy is not always easy or natural. It can be influenced by factors such as personality, culture, context, or distance. For example, you might find it harder to empathize with someone who is very different from you, who belongs to a different group, or who lives far away from you.

5 How can VR enhance empathy?

VR can enhance empathy by creating immersive and realistic scenarios that can expose you to the perspectives, emotions, and situations of other people. By using VR, you can experience what it is like to be someone else, to walk in their shoes, or to face their challenges. This can create a sense of connection, understanding, and compassion for others. VR can also enhance empathy by providing you with feedback, guidance, or reflection on your empathic responses. For example, VR can measure your physiological, behavioral, or cognitive reactions to the virtual scenarios, and give you suggestions on how to improve your empathy skills.

6 Why is VR empathy important?

Enhancing empathy with VR can have positive impacts on your personal and social well-being. For instance, VR can help you improve your mental health, happiness, and resilience by allowing you to express, regulate, or cope with your own emotions or those of others. VR can also help you improve your social skills, relationships, and cooperation by enabling you to communicate, collaborate, or support others more effectively. VR can also help you promote social change, justice, and diversity by raising your awareness, motivation, or action on issues that affect other people or groups.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?