Virtual reality supports perspective taking in cultural heritage interpretation

Our research proves that virtual reality (VR) technology can be used to encourage users to adopt an alternative point of view through a virtual embodiment. Our results extend previous studies showing that emotional responses are evoked in virtual environments (Meuleman and Rudrauf, 2018) and arouse the sense of empathy (Ventura et al., 2020). To this end, we built a virtual museum, where different avatars can interact with experimental subjects to discuss emotional and value-driven interpretations related to artworks, aiming at bootstrapping user's interpretation-reflection loops (IRL) (Daga et al., 2022). IRL consists in encouraging the user to (a) provide a point of view, (b) to know about another point of view, and (c) to possibly take a different perspective. In line with recent literature, our results are based on the analysis of dialogue, and on the psychophysiological response of the users, showing that a VR-driven methodology can both develop a sense of embodiment, and maximize the human capacity to take another's point of view. Results also confirm that the use of immersive VR can be a valid tool to promote empathy through an embodied experience.