Emotional AI by Andrew McStay

Author:Andrew McStay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-04-13T13:49:34.568212+00:00

Conclusion

Of all the media discussed in this book, VR is the one most frequently associated with empathy. This is primarily because the VR industry sees itself as being able to deliver content and experiences that allow the headset wearer to understand the perspective and lived context that others find themselves in. This chapter sought to explore this premise, particularly by clarifying the principle of immersion in relation to VR. Unpacked, this equates to an experience of presence in a synthetic environment, a sense of separateness from the real world, feelings of inclusion in the synthetic reality, the illusion of extension, in-world realism, perceptions of scale, reactions to gesture, tactile feedback, and one’s presence and interaction with others. This leads to two forms of empathy in VR: first that the in-world ‘witness’ is able to better understand the perspective and lived context of others, and second that media owners and interested parties may track attention and intention and feel-into what the headset wearer is experiencing. This may be as simple as watching on a separate screen what the headset wearer does within the synthetic space, but there is also scope for granular tracking of behaviour and responses.

As of 2017 VR has yet to make significant inroads into the home, but it is widely used and being developed across a range of sectors. This chapter focused on three sectors: journalism, market research and policing. The first entails a deeply pro-social form of empathy that has its roots in Kantian cosmopolitanism, rationality and the removal of barriers to understanding the worldviews of others. This takes place by shifting a person from viewer to participatory affective witness. That VR will lead to transcultural fellow-feeling is debatable, but what is arguably more important is that affect and truth are not the same, especially when the experience is highly constructed. Today’s VR journalism makes use of real footage, but it also depends on entirely fabricated in-world objects. Although artifice has long been used by news reporting to build a sense of authenticity, the very virtue of VR journalism has the potential to be its greatest criticism. That is, truth and a manufactured sense of presence are two different things.

The next case example of market research first noted the use of VR to bypass self-reporting, as is the case with most other empathic media. It is used to track in-world attention and attraction, and quite literally allows researchers to be in the first-person shoes of the researched. In addition to quantification of attention, something sought since the inception of consumer psychology with Wilhelm Wundt, VR is cost effective because it allows mock-ups of spaces and objects to be quickly tested with consumers. In addition to the practical benefits for market researchers, there are sensory opportunities for branding and commercial communication. This connects with the illusion of presence and sensory confusion that, as a minimum, provides scope for new sensory semiotics and triggers within in-world branded content.

On policing, the third case study, we considered VR as a command-and-control tool.

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