The Effect of Immersion on Emotional Responses to Film Viewing in a Virtual Environment

In this study, we explore how immersion affects people's sense of emotions in a virtual environment. The primary goals of this study are to analyze the possible use of virtual reality (VR) as an affective medium and research the relationship between immersion and emotion. To investigate these objectives, we compared two viewing conditions (HMD vs. No-HMD) and applied two types of emotional content (horror and empathy) to examine whether the level of immersion could influence emotional responses. The results showed that viewers who watched the horror movie using HMD felt more scared than those in the No-HMD condition. However, there were no significant emotional differences between the HMD and No-HMD conditions in the movie groups exposed to empathy. Regarding these results, we may assume that the effect of an immersive viewing experience on emotional responses in VR is deeply related to the degree of arousal and strong perceptual cues. The horror movie used in this study included intense visual and audio stimuli found in the typical horror film format. In contrast, viewers experienced less stimulating perceptual input when they are watching the empathetic movie. In conclusion, VR undoubtedly elicits a more immersive experience and greater emotional responses to the horror film. This study has confirmed the efficacy of VR as an emotional amplifier and successfully demonstrated the important association between immersion and emotion in VR.