Virtual Reality Perspective Taking

Encouraging individuals to imagine what it would be like to be someone else (e.g., an individual of a different gender, from a different age group, from a different cultural background, or with a different social-economic status) can increase empathy and pro-social behaviour toward that specific other or the entire group. Such perspective taking (PT) can also reduce implicit bias, prejudice, perceived self-other differences, and the impact of negative stereotypes, as well as facilitate social interaction and increase altruistic behaviour. Rapid advances in virtual reality (VR) technology now mean that individuals cannot only imagine what it would be like to be someone else, but can be embodied with the identity of another in order to better experience what it might be like to be that person during (simulated) daily life situations.

Accordingly, we are currently investigating the potential positive effects of VRPT with respect to (i) gender, (ii) age and (iii) cultural background across a range of everyday task scenarios. More specifically, we are exploring whether changing an individual’s identity (i.e., gender, age, ethnic/cultural affiliation) within a VR task scenario will influence how that individual perceives and interacts with co-actors represented with the same or different identity compared to their real and/or embodied virtual identity. We hypothesize that participants embodied within an avatar that represents an individual from a stigmatized group will exhibit behaviour in a more coordinated, equitable, and pro-social manner towards individuals of that stigmatized group both during and after a VRPT experience.

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