Department of Media and Communication, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
College of Communication and Information Sciences, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2023 Apr;26(4):273-278. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2022.0243. Epub 2023 Mar 17.
This study conducted a two-condition between-subjects laboratory experiment ( = 147) to examine the effects of textual disaster news combined with a 360° video in different modes (virtual reality [VR] vs. two dimensional screen) on cognitive/affective empathy and fear. Additionally, the mediating role of presence (social and spatial presence) was considered. Results indicated that the news article presented through an immersive VR mode directly led to greater levels of presence and cognitive empathy but not affective empathy and fear. The effects on social presence further resulted in greater cognitive and affective empathy, not fear. Meanwhile, spatial presence enhanced by VR led to greater levels of emotions (affective empathy and fear) but not cognitive empathy. These findings suggest the dynamic mechanisms of how an immersive VR modality can function as a complementary tool for traditional news to improve audience engagement, which centers on emotion-related outcomes in tandem with cognitive responses.
本研究采用了两种条件的被试间实验室实验（n=147），以检验在不同模式（虚拟现实[VR]与二维屏幕）下，将灾难新闻文本与 360°视频相结合对认知/情感同理心和恐惧的影响。此外，还考虑了存在（社会和空间存在）的中介作用。结果表明，通过沉浸式 VR 模式呈现的新闻文章直接导致更高水平的存在感和认知同理心，但不会引起情感同理心和恐惧。社会存在感的影响进一步导致了更高水平的认知和情感同理心，而不是恐惧。同时，VR 增强的空间存在感会导致更高水平的情绪（情感同理心和恐惧），而不是认知同理心。这些发现表明，沉浸式 VR 模式如何作为传统新闻的补充工具来提高观众参与度的动态机制，这主要集中在与认知反应相平行的情绪相关结果上。
