Affect, emotions, and crime decision-making: emerging insights from immersive 360° video experiments

ObjectivesThis study investigates the effectiveness of immersive 360° video technology in evoking and manipulating two emotions, anger, and sexual arousal, relevant to criminal decision-making.Additionally, we provide a focused review of emotions in decision-making research in criminology, offering a comprehensive foundation for our study. MethodsWe conducted immersive 360° video experiments emulating real-world situations (n = 101).We measured selfreported emotions before and after exposure to the virtual scenarios, considering both between-and withinperson effects. ResultsThe scenarios effectively elicited the criminogenic emotions in the controlled virtual environments. ConclusionsImmersive technologies, such as 360° video and virtual reality, can serve as a bridge between laboratory-based investigations and real-world criminogenic situations, offering an ecologically effective tool for exploring the intricate relationship between state affect and decision-making processes.