Cinematic virtual reality: How emotional responses vary across movie genre and technological format

Abstract

The current study seeks to explore whether virtual reality (VR) can be more effective than traditional 2D in influencing emotional responses (namely, empathy and sympathy), considering different movie genres. A factorial design 2 (movie genre: animation; documentary) x 2 (VR; 2D) between-subjects experiment was employed. A total of 145 participants were recruited. Findings suggest that sympathy and empathy responses to movies are affected by the technological format used to experience a movie, being higher in VR than in 2D. Regarding sympathy, the conducted analysis suggests that the movie genre has a higher impact than the format. Additionally, the present study concludes that the interaction between technological format and movie genre has a significant impact on WOM.