Abstract

Natural scientists working at the intersection of virtual reality, psychology, and computer science have recently explored the question of whether Embodied Virtual Reality (EVR) can be employed to train empathy. While for some authors (e.g., Bertrand et el. 2018), EVR can enhance empathy by means of creating a series of perceptual illusions, which lead users to adopt the other’s perspective and resonate with her experience, other authors (e.g., Sora-Domenjó 2022; Sutherland 2016) have been more skeptical about the powers of EVR to increase empathy in its users. This chapter aims at contributing to this recent debate by exploring how perspective-taking contributes to empathy in EVR. After an analysis of perspective-taking in non-virtual and virtual environments, the chapter introduces the distinction between sensual and emotional empathy found in classical and contemporary phenomenology (Stein 1989 ; Sveaneus 2018). While in sensual empathy, the user empathizes with the other’s lived body, in emotional empathy, she apprehends the other’s emotional states and their related values. It is argued that while the perceptual illusions elicited by EVR can lead the user to the impression of a body swap and, in so doing, foster sensual empathy, for the apprehension of the other’s emotions, which is crucial to emotional empathy, EVR must be supplemented with a series of narrative devices which that make the other’s emotions and values accessible to her.