The DOI matches its Crossref record; 81 of the 89 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Designing Awe in Virtual Reality: An Experimental Study
Open accessAbstract
Awe is a little-studied emotion with a great transformative potential. Therefore, the interest toward the study of awe's underlying mechanisms has been increased. Specifically, researchers have been interested in how to reproduce intense feelings of awe within laboratory conditions. It has been proposed that the use of virtual reality (VR) could be an effective way to induce awe in controlled experimental settings, thanks to its ability of providing participants with a sense of "presence," that is, the subjective feeling of being displaced in another physical or imaginary place. However, the potential of VR as awe-inducing medium has not been fully tested yet. In the present study, we provided an evidence-based design and a validation of four immersive virtual environments (VEs) involving 36 participants in a within-subject design. Of these, three VEs were designed to induce awe, whereas the fourth VE was targeted as an emotionally neutral stimulus. Participants self-reported the extent to which they felt awe, general affect and sense of presence related to each environment. As expected, results showed that awe-VEs could induce significantly higher levels of awe and presence as compared to the neutral VE. Furthermore, these VEs induced significantly more positive than negative affect. These findings supported the potential of immersive VR for inducing awe and provide useful indications for the design of awe-inspiring virtual environments.
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“Although such experiences are context-sensitive and not uniformly replicable, experimental and field studies suggest that scaled or simulated awe stimuli can reliably elicit measurable shifts in self-perception and meaning (104, 105).”
From The therapeutic role of self-transcendence in moral injury recovery: theory, mechanisms, and clinical implications (2026) · cites this paper as [104]
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Cites
Defining virtual reality: Dimensions determining telepresence
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The Experience of Presence: Factor Analytic Insights
Schubert, T., Friedmann, F., & Regenbrecht, H. (2001) · Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments · doi:10.1162/105474601300343603 · Cited by 2,303
Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion
Keltner, D. J., & Haidt, J. (2003) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699930302297 · Cited by 2,059
Scientific method: Statistical errors
Nuzzo, R. (2014) · Nature · doi:10.1038/506150a · Cited by 1,536
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Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior
Piff, P. K., Dietze, P., Feinberg, M., Stancato, D. M., & Keltner, D. (2015) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspi0000018 · Cited by 1,214
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8 of the 89 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 5
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Hinsch, C., Felix, R., & Rauschnabel, P. A. (2020) · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.101987 · Cited by 279
Chirico, A., & Gaggioli, A. (2019) · Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2018.0393 · Cited by 265
Self-citationYeo, N. L., White, M. P., Alcock, I., Garside, R., Dean, S. G., Smalley, A. J., & Gatersleben, B. (2020) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101500 · Cited by 260
The use of virtual reality in environment experiences and the importance of realism
Newman, M., Gatersleben, B., Wyles, K. J., & Ratcliffe, E. (2021) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101733 · Cited by 253
Shahab, M. H., Ghazali, E. M., & Mohtar, M. S. (2021) · International Journal of Consumer Studies · doi:10.1111/ijcs.12658 · Cited by 273
Metadata
- Authors
- Chirico, A., Ferrise, F., Cordella, L., & Gaggioli, A.
- Affiliations
- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (IT)
- Politecnico di Milano (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Ferrise, Francesco
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2018-01-22
- Volume
- 8
- Pages
- 2351-2351
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5786556
- OpenAlex
- W2776596136
- Cited by
- 276
- References
- 89
- Citations by year
- 2026: 34 · 2025: 46 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 8
- FWCI
- 22.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Virtual Community of Pathological Anatomy (University of Castilla La Mancha) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- PubliCatt (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Aesthetic Perception and Analysis
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Flow Experience in Various Fields
- Keywords
- awe, virtual reality, immersive virtual environments, presence, emotion induction, affect, virtual environment design
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