Being in a crowd bonds people via physiological synchrony

Collective events can generate intense emotions, shape group identities, and forge strong bonds. Do these effects extend to remote participation, and what are the psychological mechanisms underpinning their social power? We monitored psycho-physiological activity among groups of basketball fans who either attended games in-person (in a stadium) or watched games live on television in small groups. In-person attendance was associated with greater synchronicity in autonomic nervous system activation at the group level, which resulted in more transformative experiences and contributed to stronger identity fusion. Our findings suggest that the social effects of sports depend substantially on the inter-personal dynamics unfolding among fans, rather than being prompted simply by watching the game itself. Given the increasing prevalence of virtual experiences, this has potentially wide-reaching implications for many domains of collective human interaction.

The Future of Digital Tourism Alternatives in Virtual Reality

In this study, a review of the future of VR technologies for digital tourism alternatives will be presented. The general purpose of the research is to contribute to VR technologies, which are developing and integrating with new systems with each passing day from the point of view of providing a general perspective in tourism. VR application information to deepen understanding of the scope of the digital future of tourism alternatives will be presented in a systematic framework. In general, VR technologies express the behavioral experiences of individuals in virtual environments. When tourism and VR technologies are combined, the composition of the product in which these virtual experiences are directed towards a purpose emerges. Every new development that occurs from a technological point of VR technology will make it possible to be used in every field of tourism. The contribution of this research is to provide suggestions for future studies as well as practical implications for the tourism industry regarding VR systems, which are among the digital tourism alternatives.

Influence of Virtual Experience Immersion, Product control, and Stimulation on Advertising Effects

With advances in communication technologies, virtual reality (VR) has become increasing popular. This study investigated the influence of virtual experiences on advertising effects. A 2 (virtual experience immersion: high vs. low) × 2 (virtual experience product control: high vs. low) × 2 (virtual experience product stimulation: high vs. low) between-subjects design was conducted. The results revealed that compared with the low-immersion virtual experience, the high-immersion virtual experience produced better advertisement attitudes. Furthermore, virtual experiences with high product control generated better advertisement attitudes when compared with virtual experiences with low product control. The two-way interactions between virtual experience product stimulation and immersion and between virtual experience product stimulation and virtual experience product control induced better brand attitude and purchase intention. In addition, telepresence and perceived enjoyment mediated the relationship between virtual experience and advertisement attitudes.

Socially Engaged Art as Creative Pedagogy in Educational Spaces

This chapter looks at socially engaged art to realize and explore pedagogical creativity. Socially engaged art is interested in creating art that can be viewed as a process to navigate a deeper understanding of individuals and society. As this process relates to pedagogical creativity, the social practice artist is engaging the participant in a creative activity or process that often calls for a reflective notion. The essential shift socially engaged practice offers is a variant on the reflective process from self to a community, social, and collective reflective practice. This process of engaging with the community is critical for gaining community participant input to direct the practice. When applied to educators, teaching through a social practice lens can offer students a culturally responsive curriculum. Remote and virtual experiences can offer diverse opportunities for creativity, engagement, and discourse.

Being There: Exploring Virtual Symphonic Experience as a Salutogenic Design Intervention for Older Adults

This co-design study examined salutogenic potential of mobile virtual reality (VR) experiences as an alternative to participation in a community-based symphonic engagement program (B Sharp), previously found to benefit people with dementia (PWD) and their informal caregivers. Six focus groups were conducted with sixteen adults aged 76–90; three participants had dementia, and two were informal spousal caregivers. No participants had prior VR experience. The study assessed the feasibility of replicating the community-based-arts program in VR, with the goal of enhancing its salutogenic qualities (e.g., positive distraction, engagement, and social connection). Video-recordings of participants while using a mobile head-mounted display (HMD) were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis to compare perceptions of different virtual experiences, including replication or enhancement of B Sharp and a campus tour. Findings suggest participants had positive perceptions of enhanced VR experiences with no adverse effects, although PWD were less enthusiastic and HMD usability was complicated by eyewear use and comfort with technology. Participants reacted most favorably to the enhanced symphonic experience, where they were “virtually” onstage during the performance, suggesting unique experiences beyond what is possible in the real world have the greatest potential for deep immersion for older adults. Results suggest VR has strong potential to replicate and enhance salutogenic qualities of community-based programming by enabling greater access to experiences for older adults and by increasing enjoyment and engagement through experiences not otherwise feasible. Furthermore, this study illuminates advantages of a user-centered, co-design approach when developing VR experiences with community partners and older adults.

A bottom-up method for remixing narratives for virtual heritage experiences

Considering the impacts COVID-19 has had on travel and many economies, developing virtual experiences that are well-received by different publics has become even more prominent. This paper shows how a multimodal discourse analysis can be used to as a bottom-up approach to identifying narrative themes that can be used in virtual experiences for cultural heritage sites. A case study on 11 UNESCO World Heritage Australian Convict Sites shows how diverse sources of user-generated content, tourism marketing materials and historical information can be analysed and then remixed into a virtual tour of the sites in the form of an interactive web documentary (iDoc). Although this case study involved a total of seven narrative development phases, this paper focuses on two phases, namely how the user model and content model were determined. These models were later used to develop the resulting iDoc prototype. The user model focused on the prospective audience of cultural heritage tourists, and a content model of narrative themes for the iDoc was developed through a multimodal discourse analysis. This bottom-up approach of analysing existing cultural data allows for the discovery of the prospective audiences’ interests as well as narrative themes that can be included in virtual heritage experiences. It also provides a new creative methodology that can prevent issues that may arise with top-down narratives that focus too heavily on one institutional perspective or national narrative and lack direct engagement with or understanding of today’s publics.

Gathering pre-purchase information for a cruise vacation with virtual reality: the effects of media technology and gender

Purpose This study aims to apply theory on consumer learning in virtual experiences to compare how media technologies (i.e. virtual reality [VR] and standard websites) and users’ gender influence the ways in which tourists gather pre-purchase information. Design/methodology/approach A laboratory experiment with fully immersive VR was conducted to examine consumers’ behavior in gathering pre-purchase information. The sample comprised 128 consumers who had taken a cruise vacation or who were considering purchasing a cruise package in the near future. Findings The results generally reveal the central role of the feeling of presence, which, in turn, positively impacts users’ enjoyment and aspects of consumer learning (i.e. brand attitude, product knowledge and purchase intent). In particular, the results suggest that compared with standard websites, VR facilitated the tourists’ learning as consumers, especially among women, who tend to dominate the information-gathering stage of planning family vacations. Practical implications The results imply that travel agencies and tourism centers working with cruise vacation companies should incorporate VR to make their offers more attractive, especially to women. Originality/value The study was the first to apply theory on consumer learning in the cruise tourism industry, specifically to compare fully immersive VR devices versus standard websites and gauge the effect of gender.

Oh, no, Pokémon GO! Media panic and fear of mobility in news coverage of an augmented reality phenomenon

Media panics research is concerned with widespread social anxiety formed around a new technology or medium. This study adds to existing research by characterizing a new form of media panic around augmented reality applications, and specifically that which erupted concerning Pokémon GO, a popular augmented reality game. Based on a content analysis of items related to the game published in Israel's major print and online media in the period immediately following the game's launch, we classify the negative media coverage as a media panic and propose an explanation for its emergence. We argue that the negative reactions to the game stem specifically from the game's unique features and its mobile infrastructure, and especially its use of augmented reality that combines users’ virtual experiences and their interactions in actual physical space. We identify a third wave of mobile panic in this current phenomenon, one which takes into account the unique features of mobile technology as infrastructure for augmented reality applications. In contrast to previous incidents of media panic that focused on the harmful effects of increased technology use by young users, and their detachment from their physical environment, this wave represents an essentially opposite phenomenon, in which physical mobility itself, facilitated by the use of augmented reality, is deemed dangerous to players’ health and safety.

Feasibility And Acceptability of Virtual Reality for Cancer Pain in People Receiving Palliative Care: A Randomised Cross-Over Study

ContextCancer pain is common and frequently undertreated; the development of innovative therapeutic options is needed. Objectives To determine the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness for larger randomised controlled trials of 3D head-mounted (HMD) virtual reality (VR) compared with 2D screens for managing cancer pain in adults.MethodsThirteen people receiving palliative and supportive care participated in a single-session randomised cross-over trial, after which they completed a qualitative semi-structured interview. We also compared the effects of 3D HMD VR and 2D screen applications on cancer pain intensity and levels of perceived presence. Feasibility was assessed with recruitment, completion rates and time required to recruit target sample. ResultsAlthough recruitment was slow, completion rate was high (93%). Participants reported the intervention was acceptable and caused few side-effects. Although participants reported significantly reduced cancer pain intensity after 3D HMD VR (1.9 ± 1.8, P=.003) and 2D screen applications (1.5 ± 1.6, P = .007), no significant differences were found between interventions (-.38 ± 1.2, 95% CI: -1.1-.29, P=.23). Participants reported significantly higher levels of presence with the 3D HMD VR compared to 2D screen (60.7 ± SD 12.4 versus 34.3 ± SD 17.1, mean 95% CI: 16.4-40.7, P=.001). Increased presence was associated with significantly lower pain intensity (mean 95% CI: -.04- -0.01, P = 0.02). ConclusionsWe conclude that using HMD VR in palliative care pain settings is feasible and acceptable. In addition, virtual experiences provide relief of cancer pain. Further research is required to confirm the analgesic effects of VR in larger samples against appropriate control groups.