Internal medicine

Perspective (graphical)

Perspective-taking

Mathematics

Meta-analysis

Human–computer interaction

Statistics

Artificial intelligence

Psychology

Virtual reality

Empathy

Computer science

Applied psychology

Confidence interval

Medicine

Social psychology

Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking

The current meta-analysis aims to investigate and clarify existing research on virtual reality (VR) as a medium to elicit empathy. An exhaustive literature search (updated to February 29, 2020) enabled us to locate seven published articles, yielding a total of nine independent samples. The results reveal statistically significant positive changes in perspective-taking outcomes after VR exposure (d+ = 0.51 [95 percent CI: 0.15–0.88]) but they did not note in empathy (d+ = 0.21 [95 percent confidence interval, CI: −0.37–0.79]). A potential limitation of this work is the low number of studies included. Implications and directions for theoretical development and empirical research are also discussed.

Virtual Reality as a Medium to Elicit Empathy: A Meta-Analysis