Quesnel Denise, Riecke Bernhard E
iSpaceLab, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University, Surrey, BC, Canada.
Front Psychol. 2018 Nov 9;9:2158. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02158. eCollection 2018.
"Awe" is a category of emotion within the spectrum of self-transcendent experiences. Awe has wellness benefits, with feelings of social interconnectivity and increased life satisfaction. However, awe experiences remain rare in our everyday lives, and rarer in lab environments. We posit that Virtual Reality (VR) may help to make self-transcendent and potentially transformative experiences of awe more accessible to individuals. Here, we investigated how interactive VR as a positive technology may elicit awe, and how features of aesthetic beauty/scale, familiarity, and personalization (self-selection of travel destinations) may induce awe. In this mixed-methods study, participants used an interactive VR system to explore Earth from ground and orbit. We collected: introspective interviews and self-report questionnaires with participants' experience of awe; information on personality traits and gender; and we recorded physiological goose bumps on the skin (using an arm-mounted goose bump camera instrument), which is a documented marker of an awe experience. Results showed that on a scale of 0-100 for self-reported awe, four different interactive VR environments yielded an average awe rating of 79.7, indicating that interactive VR can indeed induce awe. 43.8% of participants experienced goose bumps: awe ratings positively correlated with the occurrence of goose bumps with those who experienced goose bumps having showed significantly higher ratings of awe than those who did not. Most (64%) of the goose bumps occurred when participants self-selected their VR environment. Participant statements from the interviews were characteristic of an awe-inspiring experience, revealed themes of social connection, and usability problems with the VR interface. Personality traits yielded no clear correlation to awe ratings, and females appear to experience more goose bumps than males. In summary: (1) Interactive VR can elicit awe, especially within familiar, self-selected environments; (2) Physiological goose bumps can be recorded to provide reliable, non-intrusive indications of awe; (3) Care must be taken to design interaction interfaces that do not impede awe; and (4) While personality traits are not correlated to awe ratings, goose bumps were experienced more frequently among females. We aim to conduct future studies using custom VR environments, interfaces, and additional physiological measures to provide further insight into awe.
“敬畏”是自我超越体验范畴内的一种情感类别。敬畏有益健康，能带来社会联系感和更高的生活满意度。然而，敬畏体验在我们的日常生活中依然罕见，在实验室环境中更是稀少。我们认为虚拟现实（VR）或许有助于让个人更易获得自我超越且可能具有变革性的敬畏体验。在此，我们研究了作为一种积极技术的交互式VR如何引发敬畏，以及审美之美/规模、熟悉度和个性化（旅行目的地的自我选择）等特征如何诱发敬畏。在这项混合方法研究中，参与者使用交互式VR系统从地面和轨道探索地球。我们收集了：关于参与者敬畏体验的内省访谈和自我报告问卷；性格特质和性别的信息；并且我们记录了皮肤上的生理鸡皮疙瘩（使用安装在手臂上的鸡皮疙瘩摄像仪器），这是一种已被记录的敬畏体验标志。结果显示，在0至100的自我报告敬畏量表上，四种不同的交互式VR环境产生的平均敬畏评分为79.7，表明交互式VR确实能诱发敬畏。43.8%的参与者出现了鸡皮疙瘩：敬畏评分与鸡皮疙瘩的出现呈正相关，出现鸡皮疙瘩的参与者的敬畏评分显著高于未出现的参与者。大多数（64%）的鸡皮疙瘩出现在参与者自我选择VR环境时。访谈中参与者的陈述具有敬畏体验的特征，揭示了社会联系的主题以及VR界面的可用性问题。性格特质与敬畏评分没有明显关联，而且女性似乎比男性更容易出现鸡皮疙瘩。总之：（1）交互式VR能引发敬畏，尤其是在熟悉的、自我选择的环境中；（2）可以记录生理鸡皮疙瘩以提供可靠的、非侵入性的敬畏指示；（3）必须注意设计不会妨碍敬畏的交互界面；（4）虽然性格特质与敬畏评分无关，但女性出现鸡皮疙瘩的频率更高。我们旨在利用定制的VR环境、界面和额外的生理测量方法开展未来研究，以进一步深入了解敬畏。
