trend-report-dps-web-version

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Virtual Empathy
The world is more
connected than ever before, yet
there is a growing feeling of
disconnection and intolerance in
society (The Guardian, 2017). The
more people perceive each other
as different, because of their
background, culture, religion
or moral codes, the less likely
they will understand or accept
someone else’s perspective
or behaviour. Efforts made
to improve people’s empathy
towards each other could help to
fight the polarisation of society
and the rise of extremism.
Virtual reality and augmented
reality (VR, AR) offer promising
opportunities not only for
education and research, but also
for society. According to Chris
Milk, founder and CEO of virtual
reality company Within, VR has
the ability to become the ‘ultimate
empathy machine’ as it allows a
person to be in someone else’s
shoes. This kind of empathy –
virtual empathy – is not limited to
physical distances. Not everyone is
convinced of the power of virtual
empathy through VR, for example
Professor of Psychology at Yale
University Paul Bloom (inset).
Bloom, P. (2017). It’s Ridiculous to
Use Virtual Reality to Empathize With
Refugees. The Atlantic.
[online] Available at: https://www.
theatlantic.com/technology/
archive/2017/02/virtual-reality-wontmake-you-moreempathetic/515511/
Source: Elliott, L. (2017). Rising inequality
threatens world economy, says WEF. The
Guardian. [online] Available at: https://
www.theguardian.com/business/2017/
jan/11/inequality-world-economy-wefbrexit-donald-trump-world-economicforum-risk-report
[Accessed 12 Jan. 2017].
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
QUESTIONS FROM A SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE
–
How can new technologies such as virtual
and augmented reality foster empathy
and contribute to our ability to understand
each other?
–
How do VR and AR storytellers prioritise
which stories need to be told so that virtual
empathy is created in an unbiased way?
–
How can we avoid the misuse of virtual
empathy to avoid the ‘glamourising’ of
poverty and despair?
VIRTUAL
EMPATHY:
A DIVIDED
OPINION
“VR doesn’t actually
help you appreciate what
it’s like to be a refugee,
homeless or disabled. In
fact, it can be dangerously
misleading. The problem
is that these experiences
aren’t fundamentally
about the immediate
physical environments. The
awfulness of the refugee
experience isn’t about the
sights and sounds of a
refugee camp; it has more
to do with the fear and
anxiety of having to escape
your country and relocate
yourself in a strange land.
Homeless people are often
physically ill, sometimes
mentally ill, with real
anxieties about their future.
You can’t tap into that
feeling by putting a helmet
on your head.”
Paul Bloom
• Virtual reality
100
75
50
25
• Augmented reality
Google graph showing interest in virtual and augmented reality over time (recreated)
Numbers represent Google search interest relative to the highest point on the chart
(peak = 100) over the last five years, worldwide.
Sources: Google Trends. (2017) Search terms: virtual reality and augmented reality. [online] Available at:
https://trends.google.com [Accessed on 8 Mar. 2017].
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
The rise of virtual
and augmented reality
VIRTUAL REALITY (VR)
is becoming an increasingly popular technology
in the entertainment, education, humanitarian and
healthcare sectors. By wearing a VR headset, users
are fully surrounded by a virtual, mixed or 360º video
environment and immersed in a new world. As VR
goggles track the movement of the user, they can
look around and in some cases, interact with their
perceived environment.
Recent tools for VR that have entered the market,
showing that big players are taking this trend seriously,
are Microsoft HoloLens, Oculus Rift (Facebook) and The
Vive (Valve). Meanwhile, low-budget Google Cardboard
has made VR more accessible to the wider public.
2013 2015 2016
AUGMENTED REALITY (AR)
trended briefly in 2012, but interest in this technology,
which combines the real world with the virtual, spiked
in 2016, when the technology became more advanced.
As with VR, AR requires the user to wear a headset in
the form of see-through glasses (such as Microsoft
HoloLens). While the real world is visible, reality is
enriched with computer-generated information to
create a unique and optimised experience.
Examples of AR are enhanced tours on archaeological
sites, in which the original buildings are projected on
the places where only ruins are left, or the popular
Pokémon Go game that became a worldwide craze in
2016.
Virtual Empathy