Mild Place Illusion: A Virtual Reality Factor to Spark Creativity in Writing

Abstract

Developments in Virtual Reality (VR) technology have modified the creative potential of each individual. We introduce a new concept, called "mild place illusion", as a new paradigm for designing VR-based user interfaces targeted at stimulating creativity. We show that for creative tasks - such as creative writing, new product ideation, and brainstorming - a "just-enough" amount of place illusion leads to a greater self-perception of creativity, as opposed to a "full-level" place illusion. This is a somewhat unexpected result since one would suppose, a priori, to have the full-level place illusion as the optimal setup for stimulating creativity. We considered that the methodology in this work was fairly complex, but our results show -- through a data triangulation approach -- that we were able to identify more consistent and personal creative experiences. Therefore, the main contribution of this paper is a new paradigm for designing VR user interfaces targeted at stimulating creativity by showing that a "one-illusion interspace" leads to a greater self-perception of creativity.