Data, ethical approval and experimental video game. Empathy and immersion toward virtual animal characters. The main research questions addressed in the experimental design are as follows: (1) Does game character appearance (Artificiality and Expressiveness) influence the level of self-reported situational empathy? (2) Does game character appearance (features pertaining to Artificiality and Expressiveness) influence the level of immersion? (3) Does dispositional, self-reported situational empathy correlate with immersion?

Universe: In total, we recruited 100 participants (between 18 to 25 years old, balanced for gender) from a university student population in the Netherlands. They received a course credit for their participation. They were randomly assigned to one the five groups.