Empathy training through virtual reality: moral enhancement with the freedom to fall?
We propose to expand the conversation around moral enhancement from direct brain-altering methods to include technological means of modifying the environments and media through which agents can achieve moral improvement. Virtual Reality (VR) based enhancement would not bypass a person’s agency, much...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer
2023
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| Summary: | We propose to expand the conversation around moral enhancement from direct brain-altering
methods to include technological means of modifying the environments and media through which
agents can achieve moral improvement. Virtual Reality (VR) based enhancement would not bypass a
person’s agency, much less their capacity for reasoned reflection. It would allow agents to critically
engage with moral insights occasioned by a technologically mediated intervention. Users would gain
access to a vivid ‘experience machine’ that allows for embodied presence and immersion in a virtual
world that meaningfully replicates relevant aspects of real life. We explore how VR can train empathy
and foster moral growth in complex ways that would be inaccessible even for traditional moral
education. Virtual Reality Perspective Taking is a unique medium for making empathy more
reflective. |
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