Empathy-360°: Immersive Storytelling and Embodiment to Counter Sexual Harassment against Women

To explore the validity of immersive technology to work on empathy better, the Labpsitec research group from University of Valencia (Spain), in collaboration with the Levyc research group from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (Mexico), have developed the Empathy-360° project. The main goal of the project is to investigate the efficacy of an immersive 360° video based on a sexual harassment storytelling to increase empathy score of a male sample. The immersive video was recorded in Mexico City with actors after collecting information through focus groups with female victims and a nonvictim sample. The video tells the story in the first person of a typical female journey, from applying her make-up to her journey home at night, with several instances of harassment happening to the protagonist throughout the day.