Characterising game-based Virtual Interactions facilitating prosocial BEhaviour

Social interaction is the glue of society and positive interactions can increase well-being; however, negative interactions can also lead to harm. Establishing prerequisites for increasing positive experiences and mitigating negative consequences in different situations is of utmost importance. Since more and more of our social lives are happening in virtual interactions, this knowledge is especially critical for immersive virtual 3D worlds called virtual reality (VR). VR offers exciting opportunities to reduce inequality, a Sustainable Development Goal, e.g. by creating safe spaces for minorities regardless of country borders or physical distance. Therefore, the overall objective of VIBE is to explore the influence of three key aspects of virtual social interactions on prosocial behaviour in VR: (1) anonymity: whether one knows who they are interacting with and whether they are known to their interaction partner, (2) self-identification with the avatar: to which degree a person identifies with the avatar representing them, and (3) agent-belief: whether a person believes they are interacting with another human or with an AI-controlled agent. Building on my extensive experience researching physically-embodied social interactions, I will test the influence of these three factors on prosocial behaviour in social interactions in two experiments using a trust game in VR. VIBE will scrutinise the factors that facilitate prosocial behaviour in virtual interactions. Incorporating these factors into VR design and implementation will help to realise VRs full potential to achieve social good, by increasing online collaboration and mitigating harmful experiences. The MSCA postdoctoral fellowship will allow me to build strategic international collaborations, add conducting interactive experiments in VR to my portfolio of skills and use these skills to establish myself as an upcoming leading expert in science of social interactions, both in virtual and physically-embodied spaces.