Author(s): Lopes, Inês ; Simões De Almeida, Raquel ; Marques, António
Date: 2023
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/26603
Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico do Porto
Subject(s): Virtual reality; Misophonia; Empathy; Knowledge; Vignette
Virtual Reality (VR) is considered a powerful resource for developing empathy and pro-social behaviors since it allows individuals to experience a situation that is close to reality from another person's perspective. This quasi-experimental study was designed to measure the impact that a VR simulation which mimics the experience of misophonic symptoms, while performing a cognitive task, has on empathy and knowledge for this condition, compared to simply reading the descriptive vignette of the same simulation. The sample consisted of 98 higher education health students, randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The impact of the program was measured by filling out questionnaires on levels of empathy and knowledge about misophonia. Both methods (VR and vignette) were effective. However, the vignette proved to be more effective in some domains. These results suggest that not only VR, but also vignette texts may be interesting strategies for increasing empathy and knowledge towards people with misophonia in this population.
