Virtual Reality and Emotion
David M. Markowitz, Jeremy N. Bailenson · 2023
Abstract This chapter evaluates how immersive virtual reality (VR) can be used as a tool to inform an understanding of emotion and how emotion operates as a mechanism for VR effects. The authors conducted a 5-year systematic review of the VR and emotion literature (2015–2019), focusing on empirical studies that were concerned with three types of research: (1) the connection between VR and emotion from an emotion regulation perspective (e.g., mood induction, clinical applications), (2) studies that treat emotions as a mechanism to evaluate social or psychological phenomena, and (3) studies concerned with a deeper understanding of emotions or emotion theory. This perspective draws on evidence from communication research, psychology, and human–computer interaction to achieve these aims. The authors ground their investigation in an overview of immersive VR and discuss current debates in emotion research, concluding with an attempt to make connections across fields.