Virtual Reality for Emotion Elicitation -- A Review
Rukshani Somarathna, Tomasz Bednarz, Gelareh Mohammadi

TL;DR
This review explores how Virtual Reality can actively and effectively evoke emotions through visual, audio-visual stimuli, and immersive experiences, highlighting its potential as a natural and motivational tool for emotion research.
Contribution
It addresses the gap in literature by focusing on active VR-based emotion induction methods and evaluates various VR stimuli for their effectiveness in eliciting emotions.
Findings
VR effectively evokes emotions through immersive stimuli
VR generates motivational and empathy mechanisms for emotion induction
VR is a promising ecologically valid paradigm for emotion research
Abstract
Emotions are multifaceted phenomena that affect our behaviour, perception, and cognition. Increasing evidence indicates that induction mechanisms play a crucial role in triggering emotions by simulating the sensations required for an experimental design. Over the years, many reviews have evaluated a passive elicitation mechanism where the user is an observer, ignoring the importance of self-relevance in emotional experience. So, in response to the gap in the literature, this study intends to explore the possibility of using Virtual Reality (VR) as an active mechanism for emotion induction. Furthermore, for the success and quality of research settings, VR must select the appropriate material to effectively evoke emotions. Therefore, in the present review, we evaluated to what extent VR visual and audio-visual stimuli, games, and tasks, and 360-degree panoramas and videos can elicit…
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