Virtual reality as a tool for promoting reading via enhanced narrative absorption and empathy
Katalin Bálint | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Jessica Weller | Tilburg University
Reading fiction is beneficial for various social skills, although reading has become less and less popular with younger generations. This study investigated whether reading a chapter of a fictional story in virtual reality (VR) can make the reading experience more appealing and increase intention to read the story further. A between-subject experiment (N = 83) was conducted to compare the effect of a printed book and a VR reading environment on narrative absorption, empathy with fictional characters, and intention to read. The results show that VR enhances intention to read, via a serial mediation of transportation into the story world and affective empathy. These findings indicate that VR can be effectively exploited for promoting reading.
Keywords: reading, virtual reality, narrative absorption, empathy, transportation, fiction
Article outline
- Literature and virtual reality
- Narrative absorption
- Attentional focus
- Transportation
- Emotional engagement
- Mental imagery
- Empathy
- Intention to read
- Individual differences
- Methods
- Design
- Participants
- Research stimuli
- Procedure
- Measures
- Narrative absorption
- State empathy
- Intention to read further
- Controls
- Results
- Preliminary checks
- Correlation analysis
- Hypotheses testing
- Effect of VR on SWA (H1), Empathy (H2) and Intention (H3)
- Effect of VR on SWA subscales, Empathy subscales, and Intention to read
- Mediation analysis (RQ3)
- Three mediators (Mediation Model 1)
- Two mediators with covariates (Mediation Model 2)
- Discussion
- Outlook and future research
- Limitations
- Conclusion
- Note
-
References
Published online: 30 June 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/ssol.19013.pia
https://doi.org/10.1075/ssol.19013.pia
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