How Does It Feel to Be a Woman Victim of Sexual Harassment? The Effect of 360°-Video-Based Virtual Reality on Empathy and Related Variables

Sexual harassment (SH) occurs when people - mostly women - are targets of unwanted sexual comments, gestures, or actions associated with a lack of empathy on the part of the offender. Virtual Reality (VR) has been defined as the "ultimate empathy machine"because it allows the user to take other people's perspective. The present work aims to study the effect of a 360°-video-based VR experience (vs. traditional perspective-taking task) on empathy and related concepts (i.e., violent attitude, perspective taking, sense of oneness) toward a female victim of SH in a male sample. A within-subjects design was used with 44 men who experienced both conditions (360° and narrative). Results showed the superiority of the 360°-video experience over the narrative in increasing empathy, sense of oneness, and perspective taking toward a female victim of SH. Limitations and future directions are discussed.