A Comparative Study Examining the Effects of Mixed and Virtual Reality on Plausibility Illusion and Emotional States

Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether and how the differences in the structural affordances of VR and MR (i.e., a sense of being there vs. a sense of an object being in the physical environment) can indeed induce distinct effects.

Therefore, the present study aims to elucidate the role of VR and MR technologies on users’ emotional states through the theoretical lens of plausibility illusion. Specifically, we hypothesized that plausibility illusion would mediate the effects of XR modality on emotional states, including arousal and perceived fear toward a fearful object. In addition, we explored the potential moderating role of object virtuality (i.e., ontological characteristic of virtual objects) in the relationship between XR modality and plausibility illusion.