Right-click the text on which you want to base a new style. In the mini toolbar that appears, click Styles, and then click Create a Style. In the Create New Style from Formatting dialog box, give your style a name and click OK. Your new style will now appear in the Styles gallery. Read More
Rage against the Empathy Machine Revisited: The Ethics of the Empathic Affordances of Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR) has been designated as the "ultimate empathy machine" due to its alleged ability to powerfully immerse users in another's perspective. As VR has attracted growing attention, criticism of its alleged 'empathic superpowers' has also gained strength. Critics have recently argued that the empathic-VR vision is ethically flawed since it is misleading and denies non-communicable aspects of the Other. Moreover, several scholars argue that VR empathy rhetoric in fact exploits the marginalized targets of empathy, turning them to objects "identity tourism" for the privileged.
The paper revisits these claims, arguing that they rely on empathy notions that are dominant in traditional art-media, while overlooking VR's unique experiential affordances. Drawing on psychophysiological evidence, it argues that the ethical significance of VR lies in the unique ways in which it manipulates the user's body scheme via multisensory stimulation. These manipulations result in unprecedented empathy-related perceptual and conceptual transformations whose ethical implications require new ethical framing.
History
Declaration of conflicts of interest
No conflict of interestCorresponding author email
galraz@tauex.tau.ac.ilLead author country
- Israel
Lead author job role
- Higher Education Faculty 4-yr College
Lead author institution
Tel Aviv UniversityTerms agreed
- Yes, I agree to Advance terms