# Streaming to Connect: Exploring How Social Connectedness Relates to Empathy Types and Physiological States in Remote Virtual Audiences

## TL;DR

This study explores how feeling connected to remote partners during streamed gameplay affects empathy and physiological health.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a novel experimental approach linking social connectedness to empathy and heart rate variability in virtual audiences.

## Key findings

- Greater social connectedness correlates with higher empathic concern in remote viewers.
- Participants with stronger connectedness showed significantly higher vagally mediated heart rate variability.
- Findings highlight the interplay between social connectedness, empathy, and physiological well-being in virtual settings.

## Abstract

Examining remote virtual audiences is a vital part of understanding social experiences in modern human–computer interaction contexts. Doing so raises intriguing questions about how these mediated connections relate to emotional and physiological states. The vagus nerve is central to socioemotional processing and physiological well-being, with its activation represented as vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV). We examine how participants’ social connectedness to virtual partners relates to their experience of socioemotional competences and psychophysiological states while observing streamed gameplay. In this experimental study with 48 participants, we compared self-reported empathy, empathic concern, and continuously measured vmHRV (from a PPG sensor) during different types of gameplay. The results revealed that viewers who felt greater social connectedness to remote partners also felt more empathic concern (quantitative detail) and had significantly heightened vmHRV (quant detail) across all conditions compared to those who felt lower connectedness. These findings reveal that stronger feelings of connectedness to remote partners are associated with enhanced socioemotional competences and physiological well-being. This research highlights the intertwined nature of social connectedness, empathy, and physiological health, providing valuable insights for designing virtual platforms that foster deeper interpersonal connections and promote well-being.