Does a Character’s Visual Style Affect Audience Empathy and Sympathy?

A believable virtual character is able to interact with the audience emotionally. To achieve believability, every component of the character from its movement to appearance must be designed carefully so that the character will elicit emotional responses such as empathy and sympathy from the viewers. However, to date, few studies have investigated what visual factors of a character trigger people’s empathetic and sympathetic responses. The purpose of this experimental study was to examine the effect of visual styles of three-dimensional animated characters on audience empathy and sympathy responses. In the study, 71 participants watched three animations of three characters whose visual styles differed in the degree of stylization (i.e., lead, stylized, and iconic). In each animation, the characters showed happy, angry, and sad emotions. After viewing each character’s animation, participants responded to a survey that measured their empathy and sympathy levels. Findings showed that the character’s visual style did not have a significant effect on reported audience empathy and sympathy.