Parasocial intergroup contact in virtual reality: The importance of presence in 360-degree videos for reducing prejudice
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Parasocial intergroup contact in virtual reality: The importance of presence in 360-degree videos for reducing prejudice

ByNili Steinfeld

Virtual reality (VR) has been hailed as the “ultimate empathy machine” (TED, 2015), with immersive storytelling demonstrating remarkable capabilities in eliciting empathetic responses. However, the question remains: Can VR truly change opinions and, if so, what mechanisms drive this change? This study investigated the effects of parasocial intergroup contact on empathy and attitudes towards LGBTQ+…

Book Review: Lisa Messeri’s “In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles”
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Book Review: Lisa Messeri’s “In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles”

ByMaxwell Foxman

This review was originally published in the International Journal of Communication, Volume 18 (2024), and is republished on CAVRN with the permission of the author, Maxwell Foxman. You can find the original review here. Despite virtual reality’s (VR) widespread availability (and lower price) since 2016, much literature surrounding it remains relatively speculative; there is no…

Virtual reality and refugee crises: Impact of “Clouds Over Sidra”
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Virtual reality and refugee crises: Impact of “Clouds Over Sidra”

ByPorismita Borah, Danielle Ka Lai Lee, Di Mu, Anastasia Vishnevskaya, Bimbisar Irom, Ron Price, Onur Ramazan and Yoon Joo Lee

While the Syrian refugee crisis has elicited varying responses from different nations, the American perspective remains critically understudied, even in the light of evidence suggesting that the U.S. public opinion toward refugees is less favorable than in other countries (Carlier, 2016). Studies have pointed out that quality information sharing in the context of a refugee…