AUTHOR=Steinhaeusser Sophia C. , Oberdörfer  Sebastian , von Mammen  Sebastian , Latoschik  Marc Erich , Lugrin  Birgit 

TITLE=Joyful Adventures and Frightening Places–Designing Emotion-Inducing Virtual Environments

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Virtual Reality

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/virtual-reality/articles/10.3389/frvir.2022.919163

DOI=10.3389/frvir.2022.919163

ISSN=2673-4192

ABSTRACT=<p>Virtual environments (VEs) can evoke and support emotions, as experienced when playing emotionally arousing games. We theoretically approach the design of fear and joy evoking VEs based on a literature review of empirical studies on virtual and real environments as well as video games’ reviews and content analyses. We define the <italic>design space</italic> and identify central design elements that evoke specific positive and negative emotions. Based on that, we derive and present <italic>guidelines</italic> for emotion-inducing VE design with respect to <italic>design themes</italic>, <italic>colors and textures</italic>, and <italic>lighting configurations</italic>. To validate our guidelines in two user studies, we 1) expose participants to 360° videos of VEs designed following the individual guidelines and 2) immerse them in a neutral, positive and negative emotion-inducing VEs combining all respective guidelines in Virtual Reality. The results support our theoretically derived guidelines by revealing significant differences in terms of fear and joy induction.</p>