Virtual reality for the promotion of historical empathy: A mixed-methods analysis

ABSTRACT

Historical empathy may be enhanced by virtual reality (VR) technologies, which provide varying degrees of immersion into other time periods and places. This study explored the effects of combining semi-immersive and fully immersive VR with a follow-up writing task to promote historical empathy with adult learners. Thirty-six participants were randomly assigned to view a brief historical film on either a flatscreen or a head-mounted device (HMD). Afterward, participants were again randomly assigned to either a first-person perspective or a factual recall writing prompt before then responding to questionnaires gauging their situational interest. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed to provide a holistic interpretation of participants’ development of historical empathy. Results suggest that although type of writing task remains instrumental in promoting historical empathy, immersive VR with an HMD also plays a promising role. Our findings pose important implications for post-secondary, museum, and teacher educators interested in scaffolding VR experiences to promote historical empathy.

KEYWORDS:

• Adult education
• historical empathy
• situational interest
• virtual reality

Acknowledgments

Insook Han acknowledges support from Temple University’s 2019 Summer Research Award.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Statements on open data, ethics

The data are not publicly available because participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared. This study was conducted and approved under the ethical guidelines of Temple University.

Notes

1. Martha Sharp’s husband was named Waitstill Sharp. His involvement in the Children’s Immigration Project is briefly mentioned in the VR content. We assume Participant 3634 intends to describe the “Sharp family” when referring to the “Winstill family” in their writing sample.

Additional information

Funding

Dr. Han acknowledges financial support from Temple University (2019 Summer Research Award).