The curious case of the transdiegetic cow, or a mission to foster other-oriented empathy through virtual reality

Martijn JL Kors; Erik D van der Spek; Julia Ayumi Bopp; Karel Millenaar; Rutger L van Teutem; Gabriele Ferri; Ben AM M Schouten

doi:10.1145/3313831.3376748

The curious case of the transdiegetic cow, or a mission to foster other-oriented empathy through virtual reality

Martijn JL Kors, Erik D van der Spek, Julia Ayumi Bopp, Karel Millenaar, Rutger L van Teutem, Gabriele Ferri, Ben AM M Schouten

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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Abstract

Socially aware persuasive games that use immersive technologies often appeal to empathy, prompting users to feel and understand the struggles of another. However, the often sought-after standing in another's shoes' experience, in which users virtually inhabit another in distress, may complicate other-oriented empathy. Following a Research through Design approach, we designed for other-oriented empathy - focusing on a partaker-perspective and diegetic reflection - which resulted in Permanent; a virtual reality game designed to foster empathy towards evacuees from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. We deployed Permanent 'in the wild' and carried out a qualitative study with 78 participants in the Netherlands and Japan to capture user experiences. Content Analysis of the data showed a predominance of other-oriented empathy across countries, and in our Thematic Analysis, we identified the themes of 'Spatial, Other, and Self -Awareness', 'Personal Accounts', 'Ambivalence', and 'Transdiegetic Items', resulting in design insights for fostering other-oriented empathy through virtual reality.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Number of pages	13
ISBN (Print)	9781450367080
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376748
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2020
Event	2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Honolulu, United States Duration: 25 Apr 2020 → 30 Apr 2020

Conference

Conference	2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Country/Territory	United States
City	Honolulu
Period	25/04/20 → 30/04/20

Funding

We thank Maxime Bloemsma, Rian Goossens, Mary Beth Haines, Kim Hermsen, Haruno Ito, Noriko Ito, Yasuo Ito, Alyea Sandovar, Ingmar Schuurman, Sachie Takagi, Margot van Rutten, Takemi Wada, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, OurPlanet-TV, and interviewees, participants, and reviewers for their support. This work is part of the project ‘Persuasive Gaming. From theory-based design to validation and back’ with number 314-99-106, funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

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Kors, M. JL., van der Spek, E. D., Bopp, J. A., Millenaar, K., van Teutem, R. L., Ferri, G., & Schouten, B. AM. M. (2020). The curious case of the transdiegetic cow, or a mission to foster other-oriented empathy through virtual reality. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376748

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abstract = "Socially aware persuasive games that use immersive technologies often appeal to empathy, prompting users to feel and understand the struggles of another. However, the often sought-after standing in another's shoes' experience, in which users virtually inhabit another in distress, may complicate other-oriented empathy. Following a Research through Design approach, we designed for other-oriented empathy - focusing on a partaker-perspective and diegetic reflection - which resulted in Permanent; a virtual reality game designed to foster empathy towards evacuees from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. We deployed Permanent 'in the wild' and carried out a qualitative study with 78 participants in the Netherlands and Japan to capture user experiences. Content Analysis of the data showed a predominance of other-oriented empathy across countries, and in our Thematic Analysis, we identified the themes of 'Spatial, Other, and Self -Awareness', 'Personal Accounts', 'Ambivalence', and 'Transdiegetic Items', resulting in design insights for fostering other-oriented empathy through virtual reality.",

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author = "Kors, {Martijn JL} and {van der Spek}, {Erik D} and Bopp, {Julia Ayumi} and Karel Millenaar and {van Teutem}, {Rutger L} and Gabriele Ferri and Schouten, {Ben AM M}",

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Kors, MJL, van der Spek, ED, Bopp, JA, Millenaar, K, van Teutem, RL, Ferri, G & Schouten, BAMM 2020, The curious case of the transdiegetic cow, or a mission to foster other-oriented empathy through virtual reality. in Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu, United States, 25/04/20. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376748

The curious case of the transdiegetic cow, or a mission to foster other-oriented empathy through virtual reality. / Kors, Martijn JL; van der Spek, Erik D; Bopp, Julia Ayumi et al.
Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 2020.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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AU - van Teutem, Rutger L

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AB - Socially aware persuasive games that use immersive technologies often appeal to empathy, prompting users to feel and understand the struggles of another. However, the often sought-after standing in another's shoes' experience, in which users virtually inhabit another in distress, may complicate other-oriented empathy. Following a Research through Design approach, we designed for other-oriented empathy - focusing on a partaker-perspective and diegetic reflection - which resulted in Permanent; a virtual reality game designed to foster empathy towards evacuees from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. We deployed Permanent 'in the wild' and carried out a qualitative study with 78 participants in the Netherlands and Japan to capture user experiences. Content Analysis of the data showed a predominance of other-oriented empathy across countries, and in our Thematic Analysis, we identified the themes of 'Spatial, Other, and Self -Awareness', 'Personal Accounts', 'Ambivalence', and 'Transdiegetic Items', resulting in design insights for fostering other-oriented empathy through virtual reality.

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The curious case of the transdiegetic cow, or a mission to foster other-oriented empathy through virtual reality

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