Virtual reality, presence and social cognition: The effect of eye-gaze and narrativity on character engagement

We manipulated the way in which viewers engaged with an interactive virtual reality, Coffee without Words. Participants sit over coffee in a virtual cafe, opposite the protagonist and wait for their bus to be repaired. Participants are instructed to engage with the experience as though it was real or as an artefact (to appraise its design). We also manipulated eye-gaze behaviour where half of the participants experience interactive and natural eye-contact with the character, while the other half experience no eye contact. We explore effects of manipulation on self-reported presence. Our findings demonstrate no significant effects of character's eye-gaze behaviour on participant's feelings of presence or their perception of time. However, we report here that eye-gaze behaviours associated with higher levels of social cognition towards the character.