Crafting Responsible Immersive Experiences
New Insights for Ethical UX Design
Imagine stepping into the shoes of a refugee, feeling the sand beneath your feet and the weight of uncertainty on your shoulders. This isn't just imagination — it's the power of immersive media. But as UX professionals, we must ask: At what cost does this emotional journey come?
A recent study published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies sheds new light on how immersive media affect users' emotions and memory compared to traditional formats.
This research has significant implications for UX professionals seeking to create compelling yet ethical immersive experiences.
The Promise and Perils of Immersive Media
Immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) aim to deeply engage users by replicating a first-person point-of-view. Proponents argue this heightened sense of presence elicits stronger emotional reactions and boosts learning and retention (Cummings & Bailenson, 2016). For example, VR journalism pieces like "Clouds Over Sidra" have been praised for fostering empathy by transporting viewers into the lives of Syrian refugees.
Other notable examples include "The Guardian's 6x9" VR experience, which simulates solitary confinement to raise awareness about prison conditions and “This is Climate Change” series by Danfung Dennis that uses 360-degree video to immerse viewers in environments affected by global warming, from melting ice caps to burning forests. These examples demonstrate the wide-ranging potential of immersive media to impact areas like education, environmental awareness, and social connection.
However, some studies reveal a more complex picture. While immersive experiences can elicit empathy and change people’s attitudes, they may also overwhelm them and make them more susceptible to misinformation (Kool, 2016). For highly emotional content, the intensity of immersive environments could impede factual memory of details based on theories like negativity bias, which states that negative emotions focus attention on central details at the expense of peripheral factual information (Kensinger, 2009).
Overall, research into immersive technology's effects on emotion and cognition remains limited (Cipresso et al., 2018). Most studies use simple lab stimuli like words or static images rather than actual immersive media.
Study Methodology
Bujić et al. (2023) conducted an experiment with 87 participants aged 18-40 years to address these knowledge gaps. The study design was as follows:
Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups, each experiencing the same 7-minute narrative about a refugee father escaping with his baby.
The narrative was delivered in three different media formats:
Article (low immersion): Text transcript + still images
Screen-360 (medium immersion): 360° video watched on a computer screen with mouse controls
VR-360 (high immersion): 360° video viewed through Oculus Go mobile VR headset
The story was crafted to elicit negative emotions like sadness and anxiety.
Before and after viewing the media, participants completed:
A questionnaire rating their positive and negative emotions
A 10-question multiple-choice quiz to measure verbatim memory of facts and details from the story
Key Findings: Immersion Intensifies Emotions But Impairs Memory
Analysis of the results revealed several important insights. All three media formats used elicited increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions in viewers. The VR-360 high immersion condition resulted in significantly larger increases in negative affect compared to the text article.
Gender differences were observed with female participants experiencing greater increases in negative emotion versus males across all formats. Age, however, did not impact emotional reactions among the 18-40 demographic. All age groups experienced similar emotional responses.
Finally, higher post-viewing negative emotion levels strongly correlated with poorer performance on the memory quiz across all groups, suggesting that intense emotions induced by immersive media can have have an impact on cognition.
Implications for Responsible Immersive Design
These findings have several important implications for UX professionals:
Emotional amplification: Highly immersive media strengthen emotional reactions congruent with the content, particularly amplifying negative emotions like sadness or anxiety. The study demonstrates that VR and other highly immersive formats intensify emotional responses compared to traditional media. For instance, a VR experience depicting a refugee crisis might evoke stronger feelings of empathy or distress than reading an article on the same topic. We should be aware that immersive designs may have a more profound emotional impact on users than we anticipate.
Memory trade-offs: Factual memory for details may suffer in immersive formats compared to less immersive articles, especially for emotionally charged content. While immersive experiences may be more emotionally engaging, they might impair users' ability to recall specific facts or details. After a VR tour of a historical site, for example, users might vividly remember how it felt to be there but struggle to recall specific dates or names. As a result we may need to incorporate additional methods to reinforce key information in immersive experiences.
Ethical considerations: UX professionals must carefully consider the psychological effects of immersive technology, balancing emotional engagement with user well-being and information retention. Given the powerful emotional impact and potential memory effects, we have an ethical responsibility to consider the psychological consequences of their immersive experiences. This might involve implementing content warnings, providing users with control over their level of immersion, or incorporating decompression periods after intense experiences.
Misinformation risks: Highly negative immersive experiences could potentially increase susceptibility to misinformation if audiences remember the emotional experience but not the factual details. If users retain strong emotions but fuzzy details from an immersive experience, they might be more vulnerable to misinformation that aligns with their emotional memory. For instance, after an immersive experience about climate change, users might be more likely to accept exaggerated claims about its effects if they align with the anxiety they felt during the experience. UX designers should consider how to balance emotional impact with factual clarity to mitigate this risk.
Content-dependent effects: Immersion may benefit memory for positive or neutral content by enhancing engagement and attention. While this study focused on negative emotional content, it's possible that positive or neutral immersive experiences might have different effects on memory. An immersive educational experience about space exploration, for example, might enhance both emotional engagement and factual recall due to its awe-inspiring yet not distressing nature. Further research is needed to explore how different emotion types interact with immersion to affect user experience and memory outcomes.
Strategies for Responsible Immersive UX Design
Based on these findings, we should consider the following strategies when designing immersive experiences:
Emotional calibration: Carefully modulate the emotional intensity of immersive experiences, particularly for content dealing with sensitive or traumatic subjects. More immersive isn’t always better. Consider the topic and the user before creating the experience.
Memory reinforcement: Integrate methods to reinforce key factual information, such as post-experience summaries or interactive quizzes.
User control: Provide users with options to adjust the level of immersion or to exit the experience if needed.
Diverse content: Balance emotionally intense content with more neutral or positive experiences in immersive applications, especially if the content is sensitive or traumatic.
Ethical framework: Develop and adhere to ethical guidelines for immersive content creation, especially for sensitive topics or vulnerable audiences.
Conclusion
The study by Bujić et al. (2023) highlights the need for responsible and ethical design in immersive media. UX professionals and anyone working with such technologies must thoughtfully apply immersive technologies, considering the balance between emotional engagement, psychological well-being, ethics, and information retention. While immersive experiences have the potential to educate and inspire, overuse or misapplication may have unintended consequences.
As immersive technologies continue to evolve, it is important to stay informed about their psychological impacts. Future research should explore the effects of different types of content and emotions on memory in immersive environments, as well as long-term impacts on users' psychological well-being.
Note from Author: You might have noticed that I didn’t keep up my regular posting schedule this month. I have been dealing with some health issues, which have forced me to slow down temporarily. Hoping to get back to weekly posting soon. Thanks everyone for your support — I realised that my newsletter has over 7k followers at this point and I’m genuinely in disbelief to see this response!