ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the proposition that virtual reality (VR) is an empathy machine has been a strategic move by the technology industry as a way to humanize the technology. It challenges the argument that VR is an empathy machine by seeking to prove that the notion of “empathy” itself is a problematic term. Instead, the technology can effectively be used to challenge perspectives and provoke emotions; this in turn can evoke empathy, but it should not be the driving factor for VR in immersive journalism. Although empathy has been studied for hundreds of years, with contributions from philosophy, theology, developmental psychology, social and personality psychology, ethology, and neuroscience, the field suffers from a lack of consensus regarding the nature of the phenomenon, something that appears to have been forgotten in the assumed narrative that virtual reality is an empathy machine.
