Watching movies in VR: A research ecosystem for the study of screen media effects

We introduce a virtual reality (VR) research ecosystem for the study of screen media effects and present a study providing evidence for its usability and validity. The study tested whether responses to affect-laden films presented on a standard TV within a physical space can be replicated in a virtual environment. The virtual setting was developed using Vizard 7.0, an open-access and customizable solution for media research. Using a between-subjects design, 70 participants were randomly assigned to either a TV or VR condition. Both groups were exposed to the same set of nine movie clips, encompassing three emotional categories (scary, funny, sad). While participants in the TV condition watched the clips on a physical 65″ TV, participants in the VR condition watched the clips on a virtual screen in the VR living room using a Meta Quest 2 VR headset. Continuous ratings of perceived emotional intensity and physiological measures of arousal (skin conductance level, heart rate, pulse volume amplitude) served as dependent variables. Overall, results confirmed the convergent validity between the two experimental conditions, revealing high correlations for all process variables across all stimuli. Results also demonstrated distinct responses to the clips of different emotional tones that were consistent across the experimental conditions. The findings encourage the use of VR for the study of screen media effects, demonstrating convergent validity with real-world scenarios while offering significant advantages, such as standardization and portability of the experimental setup as well as high levels of experimental control over reception setting variables.