Emotional and Cognitive Empathy, Enjoyment and Ease of Use of a Virtual Reality Environment about Migration in Colombia

Virtual Reality environments have been used to build empathy in different contexts. However, research on empathy-driven virtual reality experiences for building empathy with migrants is still in its childhood. In this paper, we present the results of a comparative study between two virtual reality environments that show stories about migrants in Colombia (South America). In total, 47 university students participated in this study and a self-reported instrument was used to collect information about emotional empathy, cognitive empathy, enjoyment and perceived ease of use. The results suggest that virtual reality improves emotional empathy but not cognitive empathy. In particular, students of psychology show higher levels of emotional empathy than students of engineering. Moreover, enjoyment and ease of use are higher in immersive VR environments to build empathy when compared to less immersive VR environments.