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Stanford University
VR increases empathy
In an experiment conducted by Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, researchers studied how perspective-taking tasks using virtual reality impacted empathy and connection compared to traditional perspective-taking tasks, in both the short term and the long term.
Participants used VR to go through several interactive scenarios that would happen if they lost their jobs and became homeless. In one scenario, for example, the participant had to seek shelter on a public bus.
The result? Participants who experienced the scenarios using VR were more likely to have empathy, positive attitudes, and connection toward the homeless than participants who underwent more traditional methods of perspective-taking, like reading a story or viewing the scenario on a computer.
Measured Outcomes After Perspective-Taking
Number of Recall Errors Made
University of Maryland
People recall information better through VR
In one of the first in-depth studies investigating the quality of learning from virtual environments compared to traditional platforms, UMD researchers recruited participants to view then recall information on either a VR head-mounted display (HMD) or on a desktop computer. The volunteers viewed a series of well-known faces, like Marilyn Monroe and Martin Luther King, Jr., then were asked to identify each face by its physical location, its relation to the other faces, and the location of the image relative to the participant. They were also asked to navigate a medieval town scenario and an ornate palace.
The researchers found that the participants using the VR head-mounted displays recalled information at 90.48 percent accuracy, compared to the desktop group’s accuracy level of 78.57 percent, concluding that people remember information much better when they learn it in a virtual format compared to traditional learning methods.
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