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Do We Need to "Be There" to Say Goodbye? Comparing Participatory Agency and Spatial Presence Across Digital Farewell Formats
Chan In Sio, Alex Mann, Qian Ming Jia, Lik-Hang Lee
TL;DR
The paper examines how messaging, a revisitable web memorial, and immersive VR relate to closure and emotional responses in digitally mediated farewells. In a controlled cloud-petting comparison, Website and VR showed higher closure than Messaging, while VR was associated with stronger grief-related responses.
Problem
It remains unclear whether symbolic participation or spatial presence supports closure in mediated farewells, a question complicated by asynchronous and socially distributed mourning experiences.
Source: §2.3 · p. 2Method
The study compared Messaging, Website, and VR farewell formats using a scripted cloud-petting attachment scenario and measures of closure, presence, and bereavement-related responses.
Source: §3.1 · p. 3, §9 · p. 8Results
Takeaways & Limitations
The findings offer preliminary design guidance to calibrate participation, experiential salience, and emotional regulation in immersive farewells.
Source: §9 · p. 8The modest sample (N = 45) cannot establish Website–VR equivalence, and the scripted 10-day narrative cannot reproduce the depth of naturally formed bereavement.
Source: §8 · p. 8
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
Digitally mediated attachment is increasingly common, yet the mechanisms of symbolic closure in hybrid physical--digital relationships remain underexplored. We address an XR design question: how different mediated farewell formats relate to perceived symbolic closure, spatial presence, and bereavement-related emotional intensity. Using "cloud petting" as a controlled proxy of digitally mediated attachment, we compare three farewell formats: (1) lightweight social messaging, (2) a revisitable web memorial, and (3) immersive VR ritual participation. These formats differ in symbolic participation, spatial presence, and sensorimotor ritual enactment. In a mixed-methods study ($N=45$), Website and VR showed significantly higher perceived symbolic closure than Messaging, while the present sample did not detect a significant closure advantage for VR over Website. VR was also associated with significantly stronger grief-related responses on the Pet Bereavement Questionnaire, whereas negative-affect change measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule did not differ significantly across modalities. This pattern motivates a preliminary, exploratory, mechanism-level Agency-Amplification account: formats supporting structured farewell participation were associated with higher perceived closure, whereas the VR format, combining technical immersion, spatial presence, and sensorimotor ritual enactment, was associated with stronger loss-oriented emotional processing. Because the formats also bundled differences in participation, revisitation, technical immersion, and spatial presence, the study provides preliminary design guidance without isolating the causal contribution of any single feature.
1 INTRODUCTION
The paper asks how messaging, a revisitable web memorial, and immersive VR relate to symbolic closure, spatial presence, and bereavement-related emotional intensity. It compares these formats using cloud petting as a controlled proxy of digitally mediated attachment.
1 INTRODUCTION
- Cloud petting provides a controlled proxy for digitally mediated attachment, operationalized through a scripted 10-day interaction before the farewell.The scripted scenario retained key features of mediated attachment while enabling comparison across conditions.Source: §1 · p. 2
- The study compares lightweight social messaging, a revisitable web memorial, and immersive VR ritual participation across closure, presence, and bereavement-related emotional intensity.The formats differ in symbolic participation, spatial presence, and sensorimotor ritual enactment.Source: §1 · p. 2
- Website and VR were associated with higher perceived symbolic closure than Messaging, while VR was associated with the strongest spatial presence and bereavement-related emotional intensity.The study frames these results as associations with the formats, not isolated effects of any one feature.Source: §1 · p. 2
- The paper proposes a preliminary Agency-Amplification account and design implications for calibrating participation, spatial presence, and emotional intensity in digital farewells.Source: §1 · p. 2
2 RELATED WORK
Digital memorial research has examined remembrance and culturally grounded rituals, while questions remain about which design features support symbolic closure. Prior XR work suggests immersion and enactment may amplify affect, but their role in closure remains unclear.
2.1 Digital Mourning and Memorialization
- Digital mourning literature spans memorialization, digital legacy, ongoingness, and culturally grounded ritual, but the interaction mechanisms that support symbolic closure remain unclear.The review notes a need to distinguish symbolic participation from spatial presence when relational context is held constant.Source: §2.1 · p. 2
2.2 Virtual Reality for Grief and Memorialization
- Prior VR grief and memorialization work has generally treated VR as a standalone support medium, leaving its benefits relative to lower-immersion farewells uncertain.Existing examples include therapeutic environments, widow(er) support groups, and ritualized memorial interaction.Source: §2.2 · p. 2
2.3 Presence and Emotional Amplification
- Prior work links immersion and embodiment with presence and affective responses, but whether spatial presence adds symbolic closure beyond participation remains an open question.The study addresses this gap through a mechanism-oriented comparison of Messaging, Website, and VR in the same scripted attachment and farewell scenario.Source: §2.3 · p. 2
3 SYSTEM DESIGN
The system translates distinct participation and presence constructs into three recognizable farewell formats. VR stages culturally legible ritual actions in a virtual funeral environment, while Website supports screen-based memorial participation and revisitation.
3.1 Design of the Experimental Conditions
- Messaging offered lightweight social participation, Website supported symbolic memorial participation, and VR combined sensorimotor ritual participation with spatial presence.The conditions were ecologically recognizable formats rather than a factorial manipulation, so the comparison bundles multiple affordances.Source: §3.1 · p. 3
3.2 Sensorimotor Ritual Interaction Design
- VR mapped controller actions to symbolic ritual outcomes, including attendance stamping, incense offering, bowing, and gift presentation.Messaging and Website required no bodily movement; Website instead supported screen-based message posting and virtual gifting.Source: §3.2 · p. 3
3.3 Virtual Environment Design
- The VR memorial hall guided participants through a spatial sequence of ritual stages, with teleport anchors, visual instructions, spatial audio, and haptic feedback.Its Cantonese-style elements were intended to support cultural legibility for the primarily Hong Kong sample, not to represent all Cantonese funeral practice.Source: §3.3 · p. 3, Figure 2 · p. 3
3.4 Website Memorial Design
- Website participants could review memorial media, write a farewell message, and select a symbolic gift, with access available for 72 hours.The page supported asynchronous participation and revisitation without spatial navigation or sensorimotor ritual enactment.Source: §3.4 · p. 3
3.5 Implementation and System Architecture
- PetFarewellVR was built in Unity for standalone Meta Quest 3 deployment, using 6-DoF tracking, controller-based interaction, spatial audio, and locally logged interaction events.Rendering was optimized for a stable frame rate above 72 FPS.Source: §3.5 · p. 3
4 USER STUDY
The study compared three ecologically recognizable farewell formats after a shared, scripted cloud-petting narrative. The formats varied in participation, revisitation, and immersion, and were tested with 45 participants.
4.1 Study Design
- The between-subjects study compared Messaging, Website, and VR as farewell formats differing in ritual agency, symbolic participation, and spatial presence.The authors interpret outcomes as associations with the overall formats, not isolated causal effects of agency or spatial presence.Source: §4.1 · p. 3
4.2 Participants
- 45 Hong Kong participants were recruited, with 15 assigned to each condition; people with recent bereavement were excluded.The exploratory sample was intended to identify larger between-format effects, not establish equivalence or rule out smaller Website–VR differences.Source: §4.2 · p. 4
4.3 Cloud-Petting Interaction Protocol
- Participants followed a scripted 10-day cloud-petting narrative before a Day 11 farewell, using remote updates and responses as a proxy for hybrid physical–digital attachment.The shared narrative progressed from adoption and daily interaction to illness, death, and a memorial announcement.Source: §4.3 · p. 4
4.4 Farewell Modalities
- Messaging offered one-time viewing and lightweight responses, Website enabled message writing and virtual gifting with 72-hour revisitation, and VR enacted a guided sensorimotor ritual.VR actions included attendance stamping, incense offering, bowing, memorial viewing, and gift presentation.Source: §4.4 · p. 4
5 MEASURES
The study measured attachment, perceived closure, bereavement-related response, affective change, and spatial presence, with interviews used to contextualize participants’ experiences. Measures were completed at different points around the narrative and farewell.
5 MEASURES
- Measures covered symbolic closure, grief-related response, affective change, and spatial presence; sensorimotor ritual enactment was a VR design feature, not a separately measured embodiment construct.LAPS was administered before and after the attachment narrative, while post-farewell measures and interviews followed each participant’s farewell period.Source: §5 · p. 4
5.1 Cloud Pet Attachment (LAPS)
- LAPS assessed attachment formed during the 10-day cloud-petting narrative and served as a manipulation check.It is a 23-item scale with responses from 0 to 3.Source: §5.1 · p. 5
5.2 Symbolic Closure (PSCS)
- The exploratory PSCS-10 measured perceived symbolic closure through direct closure, ritual expression, farewell meaningfulness, and emotional settling despite continued sadness.It showed acceptable internal consistency in this sample (Cronbach’s α = .76); the authors note possible construct overlap and acquiescence bias and call for further validation.Source: §5.2 · p. 5
5.3 Bereavement Intensity (PBQ)
- The PBQ assessed grief, anger, guilt, and trauma after the farewell, with higher scores indicating greater bereavement intensity.Items were minimally adapted to the virtual-pet context.Source: §5.3 · p. 5
5.4 Affective State (PANAS)
- PANAS measured pre-to-post changes in positive and negative affect as separate dimensions, allowing engagement to coexist with sadness or distress.Scores were adjusted for baseline mood by measuring affect both before and after the farewell.Source: §5.4 · p. 5
5.5 Spatial Presence (IPQ)
- The IPQ assessed subjective presence, including spatial presence, involvement, and experienced realism, but not embodiment or virtual-body agency.Higher scores indicated stronger presence.Source: §5.5 · p. 5
5.6 Semi-Structured Interviews
- Semi-structured interviews explored emotional response, farewell experience, closure and meaning, emotional intensity and regulation, and cross-modality reflection.Participants from all three modalities were interviewed, and transcripts were iteratively analyzed thematically.Source: §5.6 · p. 5
6 RESULTS
Across the three farewell formats, Website and VR had higher perceived symbolic closure than Messaging, while VR had higher bereavement intensity and spatial presence. Affective-change differences were not significant, and interviews contextualized the quantitative findings.
6.1 Data Preparation and Statistical Analysis
- PSCS-10, PBQ, and IPQ remained significant after correction, while positive- and negative-affect change did not; five primary omnibus tests used Benjamini–Hochberg correction.Figure 4 summarizes the main outcomes; bars indicate means and error bars standard deviations.Source: §6.1 · pp. 5–6, Figure 4 · p. 6
6.2 Farewell Modality Validation: Attachment Strength
- Attachment increased from M = 1.34 before cloud petting to M = 1.49 after the narrative, establishing a measurable but modest relational baseline.The paired-samples test was significant, t(44) = 16.52, p < .001.Source: §6.2 · p. 6
6.3 Symbolic Closure; 6.4 Bereavement Intensity; 6.5 Affective Change
- Website and VR scored higher than Messaging on perceived closure, while VR had higher bereavement intensity than both screen-based formats; affective-change differences were non-significant.The present sample detected no significant closure difference between Website and VR.Source: §6.3 · p. 6, §6.4 · p. 6, §6.5 · p. 6
6.3 Symbolic Closure
- PSCS-10 scores were higher in Website and VR than Messaging, with no significant Website–VR difference (p = .726).The modality effect was F(2,42) = 11.06, p < .001, η2 = .35.Source: §6.3 · p. 6
6.4 Bereavement Intensity
- VR had higher PBQ scores than Messaging and Website, while the latter two did not significantly differ.VR’s mean was 2.16; the comparisons with Messaging and Website were p = .004 and p = .013, respectively.Source: §6.4 · p. 6
6.5 Affective Change
- Positive- and negative-affect changes did not differ significantly across modalities after correction, despite descriptive negative-affect increases in VR.The adjusted p-value for negative-affect change was .121.Source: §6.5 · p. 6, Table 5 · p. 6
6.6 Spatial Presence
- IPQ scores indicated the strongest subjective sense of being there in VR, followed by Website and Messaging.Mean scores were −0.20 for Messaging, 0.51 for Website, and 1.49 for VR.Source: §6.6 · p. 6
6.7 Post-Farewell Semi-structured Interview
- Interview themes linked participants’ accounts of message writing and ritual gestures with farewell completion, and described VR grief as pet-specific rather than generalized negative affect.Website participants also described meaningful but manageable reflection, while participants across Website and VR valued recognizable ritual elements.Source: §6.7 · p. 6
7 DISCUSSION
Across the three bundled farewell formats, structured participation was associated with higher perceived closure, while VR was associated with stronger bereavement-related intensity. The discussion interprets these patterns cautiously because participation, presence, revisitation, and other format characteristics were not isolated.
7.1 Participatory Agency, Spatial Presence, and Symbolic Closure
- Website and VR showed higher perceived closure than Messaging, but the sample detected no additional closure advantage for VR over Website.Interviews linked completion to message writing, virtual gifting, and sensorimotor ritual actions; Messaging offered lightweight social participation rather than structured memorial actions.Source: §7.1 · p. 7
7.2 Mechanism-Level Accounts of Modality Effects
- VR showed the highest bereavement-intensity and spatial-presence scores, while Website and VR both showed higher closure than Messaging.Qualitative accounts described VR as “heavier” and “closer to real,” and linked closure to writing, gifting, and ritual actions.Source: §7.2 · p. 7
7.3 The Agency-Amplification Account
- The preliminary Agency-Amplification account associates structured participation with higher closure and VR with stronger spatial presence and bereavement-related intensity, not with independently established causes.The sample did not establish Website–VR equivalence, and the account is exploratory rather than a confirmed causal model.Source: §7.3 · p. 7
- The PANAS showed no significant modality difference in negative-affect change, whereas VR participants reported significantly higher PBQ bereavement intensity than participants in Messaging and Website.The discussion treats this divergence as more consistent with heightened bereavement-related intensity than with a broad increase in generalized negative affect.Source: §7.3 · p. 7
7.4 Implications for Immersive Farewell Ritual Design
- The findings do not support assuming that more immersion is always better; Website and VR had numerically similar mean closure despite their different immersion levels.Website also combined symbolic participation, moderate experiential engagement, repeated access, and longer reflection time, so the design cannot determine each feature’s contribution.Source: §7.4 · p. 8
- Immersive ritual design should account for VR’s higher PBQ bereavement intensity without a corresponding significant increase in generalized negative affect on PANAS.The combined 6-DoF interaction, spatial presence, and sensorimotor gestures were associated with more specific loss-oriented emotional processing in this farewell context.Source: §7.4 · p. 8
- Message writing, symbolic gifting, and offering gestures may support relational completion, while immersive VR may warrant pacing, pause or withdrawal options, debriefing, and access to support.The discussion presents screen-based or medium-immersion rituals as a possible lower-intensity baseline when the goal is manageable closure.Source: §7.4 · p. 8
8 LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE WORK
The study’s conclusions are bounded by its bundled format design, modest sample, scripted attachment scenario, and specific cultural setting. The authors call for independent manipulation of format features and validation across broader contexts.
8 LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE WORK
- The three conditions bundled agency, immersion, presence, duration, access, interaction, and setting, so their separate contributions cannot be inferred.Website’s 72-hour access and differences in VR deployment and visible Messaging responses may also have affected outcomes.Source: §8 · p. 8
- With N = 45, the study cannot establish Website–VR equivalence or rule out smaller differences; its scripted 10-day scenario cannot reproduce naturally formed bereavement.The exploratory, study-developed PSCS-10 may be susceptible to acquiescence bias and may partly capture ritual completion.Source: §8 · p. 8
- Findings from a Hong Kong sample, Cantonese-style setting, and scripted cloud-petting scenario should not be generalized directly to human or close-family bereavement or other cultural contexts.The authors recommend future work with longer-term relationships and culturally diverse farewell practices under appropriate ethical safeguards.Source: §8 · p. 8
9 CONCLUSION
The study compared Messaging, Website, and VR using cloud petting as a controlled proxy of digitally mediated attachment. Structured participation was associated with higher closure, while VR was associated with greater spatial presence and bereavement-related intensity, motivating preliminary design guidance rather than a general model of human bereavement.
9 CONCLUSION
- Website and VR showed higher perceived closure than Messaging, while the sample detected no additional closure advantage for VR over Website.VR had the strongest spatial presence and bereavement-related emotional intensity, but generalized negative-affect change did not differ significantly across formats.Source: §9 · p. 8
- The exploratory Agency-Amplification account associates structured participation with higher closure and the bundled VR format with greater loss-oriented emotional salience.The three formats also differed in revisitation, access mode, interaction structure, and setting, so the study does not establish independent causal effects of agency or presence.Source: §9 · p. 8
- The findings suggest calibrating farewell experiences to balance participatory meaning-making, experiential salience, and emotional regulation rather than assuming more immersion is always better.This is preliminary XR design guidance within the scripted cloud-petting, Hong Kong, and Cantonese-style context, not a general model of human bereavement.Source: §9 · p. 8
FIGURE CREDITS AND COPYRIGHTS
The authors retain copyright for all figures.
FIGURE CREDITS AND COPYRIGHTS
- All figures were created by the authors and remain under their copyright.Source: FIGURE CREDITS AND COPYRIGHTS · p. 8