A Survey-Based Evaluation of Interactive Virtual Reality Scenarios to Assess Emotions

The integration of virtual reality (VR) technology in healthcare enables the creation of safe and controlled environments for the evaluation of human emotions. However, in current scientific literature, most VR scenarios are based on static images, videos or non-interactable environments, not leveraging the strengths of Interactive Scenario Visualization. Thus, the aim of this work is to assess, using a psychological survey, whether the developed interactive VR scenarios are capable of eliciting target emotions. Six interactive scenarios were developed using Unity software: a tutorial, a baseline and four tailored to assess emotions such as fear, sadness, happiness and disgust. 61 participants (34 M, 26 F, 1 O) underwent a 7-min evaluation for each scenario, with a 2-min baseline intermission between scenarios and a starting tutorial scenario of 5 min used to familiarize with VR. At the beginning and end of the experiment, participants filled a questionnaire about their sociodemographic characteristics, overall experience, perceived emotions and immersivity within the VR setting. The "Fear" scenario was identified as the most impactful and capable of eliciting the intended emotion, while the "Sadness" scenario was identified as the one less capable of eliciting the target emotion. The overall experience was identified as of high immersivity, being capable of giving a sense of "being there" and enhancing the felt emotions. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the interactive VR scenarios in eliciting the intended emotional responses, highlighting the potential of interaction features to enhance the effectiveness and immersivity of VR environments, supporting further studies on emotion analysis in VR.