Social presence during brief immersive virtual concert viewing: an experimental comparison of audience enjoyment, emotional arousal, and post-exposure fan identification
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Immersive virtual concert viewing is becoming an increasingly important form of digital music experience, yet the psychological processes associated with audience responses in such environments remain insufficiently understood. This study examined whether social presence statistically accounted for differences in audience responses between two concert-viewing configurations. A laboratory experiment was conducted with 240 participants aged 18-30 years, who were randomly assigned to either an immersive virtual concert condition or a standard two-dimensional concert video condition. After viewing a 4-min concert clip, participants completed measures of perceived immersiveness, social presence, enjoyment, emotional arousal, and emergent fan identification. The immersive virtual concert condition produced significantly higher perceived immersiveness and social presence than the standard video condition. Social presence was positively associated with enjoyment, emotional arousal, and emergent fan identification. Bootstrap indirect-effect analyses further showed significant indirect associations between viewing condition and all three audience outcomes through social presence. These findings provide preliminary evidence that social presence is associated with the enhanced audience responses observed under a brief immersive concert-viewing configuration. Because the experimental conditions bundled several technological differences and social presence was not independently manipulated, the findings should not be interpreted as isolating a specific technological feature or establishing a causal mediating mechanism.
Source: Frontiers in Psychology
Authors: Xiaobin Li, Meiji Huo
Institution: Beihua University
Language: English
Subfield: Human-Computer Interaction
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7221698261