Virtual Reality and the Rhetoric of Empathy
Dooley Murphy · 2022
This chapter offers critical reflections on discourse surrounding live action 360° documentary and interactive virtual reality (VR) for social change. It addresses the rhetoric of the so-called “empathy machine,” a term that gained traction in 2015 and has lingered since. The attempted characterization of VR as an unequivocal force for good is enabled in part by gesturing toward experimental studies that hint at the medium's potential for attitudinal rehabilitation and/or social change, but which may only theoretically pertain. Emotions like fear, regret, and anger all have filmic paradigm scenarios corresponding to threat or uncertainty, loss, and having been wronged, respectively. Psychologist Paul Bloom, having reportedly been persuaded by Prinz's oncecontroversial position, has likewise written on the limitations and pitfalls of empathy in and outside of VR. Prinz and Bloom argue in the languages of moral philosophy and moral psychology respectively that concern and compassion are better ways to approach less fortunate others.