A Placebo Concert: The Placebo Effect for Visualization of Physiological Audience Data during Experience Recreation in Virtual Reality

A core use case for Virtual Reality applications is recreating real-life scenarios for training or entertainment. Promoting physiological responses for users in VR that match those of real-life spectators can maximize engagement and contribute to more co-presence. Current research focuses on visualizations and measurements of physiological data to ensure experience accuracy. However, placebo effects are known to influence performance and self-perception in HCI studies, creating a need to investigate the effect of visualizing different types of data (real, unmatched, and fake) on user perception during event recreation in VR. We investigate these conditions through a balanced between-groups study (n=44) of uninformed and informed participants. The informed group was provided with the information that the data visualizations represented previously recorded human physiological data. Our findings reveal a placebo effect, where the informed group demonstrated enhanced engagement and co-presence. Additionally, the fake data condition in the informed group evoked a positive emotional response.