Effects of Tactile Perception on Emotion and Immersion to Film Viewing in a Virtual Environment

In this research, we compared three tactile conditions (No vs. Soft vs. Spiky) in both positive and negative scenes to explore whether tactile perception could influence emotional responses and immersive experience in a virtual environment (VE). The results showed that, when viewing positive scenes with soft stimuli, participants experienced an increase in both positive emotions and their level of immersion compared to those in the No and Spiky tactile conditions. We also found that participants in the No and Spiky tactile conditions reported no significant differences in either emotion or immersion when viewing positive scenes. During the viewing of negative scenes, spiky stimuli did not intensify negative feelings, while soft stimuli decreased negative emotions. In terms of immersion, there was no meaningful difference between the three tactile conditions for negative scenes. Overall, this study has demonstrated the important association between tactile perception, emotion, and immersion in a VE.