Beyond The Empathy Machine: Embodiment, Representation Ethics and Empathic Effect in VR

Purpose: This study examines the capacity of virtual reality to generate empathy through a comparative analysis of Body of Mine and MAYA: Birth of a Superhero. It argues that virtual reality (VR) should not be understood as an automatic “empathy machine,” but as a medium in which empathic effect depends on embodiment, narrative design, representation, user positioning, and ethical framing.Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a qualitative literature review, theoretical synthesis, and comparative case analysis. It discusses affective, cognitive, and behavioural dimensions of empathy alongside embodiment, presence, avatar ownership, and narrative transportation. The review also considers studies on VR empathy, body ownership illusions, avatar-mediated attitude change, immersive storytelling, and VR ethics.Findings: The analysis shows that Body of Mine creates a bodily and reflective encounter through motion, face, and eye tracking combined with trans testimonies. MAYA, by contrast, transforms menstrual taboo into a mythopoetic, feminist, and symbolic superhero narrative. Together, the cases show that VR empathy cannot be reduced to a single technical or aesthetic formula.Research limitations/implications: The study is based on a literature-informed, paratextual analysis rather than direct experience of the two works or original user-experience data. Future research may examine these experiences through direct observation, interviews, focus groups, or pre-test/post-test designs.Practical implications: The findings suggest that ethical representation, community participation, post-experience reflection, and concrete calls to action can strengthen empathic VR design.Originality/value: The article moves beyond the “empathy machine” discourse by comparing realistic and symbolic embodiment within an integrated technical, narrative, and ethical framework