Eliciting Pleasantness With Haptic Feedback: The Role of Physical and Pseudo-Haptic Resistance in Virtual Archery

Although haptic technologies that allow users to touch virtual objects have been actively researched in the academic field, they are not yet widely adopted in real-world applications. To promote broader adoption, designing haptic stimuli that elicit pleasant sensations is essential since hedonic motivation significantly drives user acceptance. However, how such pleasantness can be effectively induced through haptic stimulation during a user's active exploration remains an open question. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the applied force during user actions and the resulting pleasantness, using a bow-dragging and arrow-shooting scenario. Specifically, we conducted three psychophysical experiments to investigate two types of force feedback. One type was a physical force that stimulated the kinesthetic sense, and the other was a pseudo force induced through visual manipulation. Our results revealed that pleasantness tended to be elicited when physical resistance force was present during bow dragging, whereas this tendency was not observed for pseudo resistance force. Our findings show that the two types of force are not interchangeable for eliciting positive affect. We also found that the arrow's flying speed contributed to pleasantness as much as the physical resistance force, suggesting that pleasantness is influenced postdictively. Moreover, across all experiments, perceived pleasantness was strongly correlated with the perceived naturalness of the bow-and-arrow behavior. These findings provide valuable insights for designing pleasant interactions involving continuous force feedback, highlighting the distinct roles of physical and pseudo-haptic cues.