Physiological Responses to Roller Coaster Rides: A Pilot Study on the Differences between Virtual Reality and Real World Measures

Introduction: The aim of the study was to measure and analyse arousal of roller coaster passengers in both VR and real-world to make a comparison between these situations. To make arousal testable two approachesare introduced: separating the ride in contiguous phases vs. grouping data by roller coaster elements. Study 1: Participants watched roller coasters in virtual reality while their EDA and HR was measured. A decrease of these measures from the first to the last phase was found. Only a weak association of roller coaster elements with specific arousal reactions was observed. Study 2: With a small group of participants an amusement park was visited to ride real-world roller coasters. No phase-dependent change of arousal was found. However, some roller coaster elements were accompanied with specific changes in arousal. For all roller coasters continuous EDA and HR is reported. Conclusion: Even though no direct comparison between VR and real-world was conducted our research implies that both conditions have different effects on real-time arousal. We conclude that VR roller coasters can not be seen as an equivalent alternative to realworld roller coasters.