In VR Survey of Virtual World Blog Readers, Over Half of Women Report Intense or Frequent Nausea from Using Virtual Reality

Here's the results of my survey of VR and nausea as reported by readers of this virtual world/gaming blog. 109 people participated, 56% men, 40% women, 4% trans. This pie chart summary of results is a bit difficult to read by gender, so here's the key data:

• All participants who report feeling nausea from VR “often or intensely”: 35%
• Male participants who report feeling nausea from VR “often or intensely”: 21%
• Female participants who report feeling nausea from VR “often or intensely”: 52%

This is a massive, 31% difference of reaction to virtual reality based on male/female gender. And yes, while this is a non-scientific survey, it is also targeted at readers who are regular users of virtual worlds/MMOs -- -- i.e. one of the top target markets for virtual reality. Perhaps that's why female participants actually report less nausea than rigorous academic studies -- in two recent peer-approved papers, women were reporting sickness from VR at rates of 75% or more.

Looking at the data from the other direction, the differences by gender are just as stark: 

• Male participants who report feeling nausea from VR “never”: 31%
• Female participants who report feeling nausea from VR “never”: 13%

I've intentionally left out the numbers of people who report VR nausea "occasionally or mildly", because that seems to be an addressable/acceptable level of discomfort. But looking at VR's ideal audience, those who feel no negative reactions (at least far as nausea), we're talking about roughly 1 in 3 men... and just about 1 in 10 women.

Maybe the industry is engaged in intense research on this problem, but so far, reports seem scant. I asked Oculus if they had studied nausea by gender, but company CTO John Carmack wasn't even aware if those were being done, and the PR department hasn't replied to my query. (Then again, they kind of had their hands full lately.)

Comments

[Mac]

In my opinion this poll is mostly worthless - what software/game were they using? Were they standing or sitting? What VR system were they using? The smartphone VR headsets suck compared to the Rift or Vive. There are just too many variables to make any kind of educated conclusion.

[Dirk Grantly]

I published on this a while back. It's not just gender, but a solid 10% of any population will experience VR nausea. There's a genetic component implied by parallel studies in other motion-induced illness, and none of this can be attributable to visual latency, as the OR folks were claiming during the release of the DK2.

[Mac]

With Rift CV1, I experience zero nausea IF I am not virtually moving an avatar within the simulated environment. If I do that (Mission: ISS anyone) then I last at best 20-30 minutes before nausea takes over.

Rift DK1 would make me slightly nauseated standing still and looking around after a few minutes - CV1 does not. So, first hand experience is that some nausea can be induced by visual latency issues (DK1 latency vs CV1 lack of). Or it could be that I have just built up a 'resistance' to minor VR induced nausea. I doubt that however as others I work with that tried the DK1 reported the same feelings, and so far not a single co-worker (over 30 so far) has reported any nausea after trying the CV1 demo, but have reported feeling light headed or nauseated after 'playing' Mission: ISS.

Latency is no longer relevant in higher end VR such as Rift CV1, but perhaps is an issue using smartphone/VR combos. The problem I have here is that this survey does not differentiate between all of the incarnations of VR that are currently available - from the crappy $10 headsets to the Rift/Vive $600+ setups, neither does it take into account the type (game/application, sitting/standing, moving/stationary) of VR that the end user is experiencing.