Increasing Heart Rate and Anxiety Level with Vibrotactile and Audio Presentation of Fast Heartbeat

Heartbeat is not only one of our physical health indicators, but also plays an important role in our emotional changes. Previous investigations have been repeatedly investigated to the soothing effects of low frequency vibrotactile cues which evoke a slow heartbeat in stressful situations. The impact of stimuli which evoke faster heartbeats on users’ anxiety or heart rate is, however, poorly understood. We conducted two studies to evaluate the influence of the presentation of a fast heartbeat via vibration and/or sound, both in calm and stressed states. Results showed that the presentation of fast heartbeat stimuli can induce increased anxiety levels and heart rate. We use these results to inform how future designers could carefully present fast heartbeat stimuli in multimedia application to enhance feelings of immersion, effort and engagement.