52-Hz Whale Song: An Embodied VR Experience for Exploring Misunderstanding and Empathy

TL;DR

This paper introduces an embodied VR experience called 52-Hz Whale Song that uses metaphor and perspective-shifting to explore miscommunication and foster empathy, especially in contexts of social and cultural displacement.

Contribution

It presents a novel embodied VR approach that emphasizes perspective-shifting and metaphor to enhance empathy, differing from prior narrative-based VR empathy tools.

Findings

Increased perspective-taking among participants.

Reduced self-reported social distance.

Effective use of embodied metaphor for empathy development.

Abstract

Experiences of being misunderstood often stem not from a lack of voice, but from mismatches between how individuals express themselves and how others listen. Such communicative mismatches arise across many social settings, including situations involving linguistic and cultural displacement. While prior HCI research has explored empathy through virtual reality, many approaches rely on narrative explanation, positioning users as observers rather than embodied participants. We present 52-Hz Whale Song, an embodied VR experience that explores miscommunication through metaphor and perspective-shifting. Inspired by the real-world "52-Hz whale," whose calls are not responded to by others, the experience uses this phenomenon as an experiential lens on communicative mismatch rather than representing any specific social group. Players progress through a three-act arc that moves from failed communication to agency and ultimately to mediation. A preliminary mixed-methods study (N = 30) suggests increased perspective-taking and reduced self-reported social distance in immigrant-related situations. This work highlights how embodied metaphor and role-shifting can support empathic engagement and offers transferable design insights for empathy-oriented interactive systems.