Embodied Psychological Interventions: Can Virtual Body Transformations Improve Intergroup Relations?

Embodied Psychological Interventions: Can Virtual Body Transformations Improve Intergroup Relations?

Virtual reality not only takes us to another place in an instant, it can also give us the illusion of ‘being’ someone else using virtual embodiment techniques. Virtual bodies that we temporarily “own” in virtual reality can be very different from our physical body, for example representing another age, races, or gender. Such virtual body transformations have been found to lead to profound changes in social cognition and behavior.

In this talk I will present a series of studies in which we demonstrate the potential of virtual body transformations for intergroup bias reduction and conflict resolution. In the first study we show that embodying White individuals in a Black virtual body can not only reduce but even temporarily reverse racial ingroup bias as indicated by more favorable treatment of Blacks over Whites. In the following studies we apply these virtual embodiment techniques in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead of embodying the outgroup in the conflict, we show that a virtual aging experience can increase young Israelis’ hope for peace and support for peace-promoting policies. I will discuss potential mechanisms underlying these surprising effects, and the theoretical and methodical implications of virtual body transformations as a new paradigm for psychological research. I will conclude with an outlook into future directions in the emerging field of ‘embodied psychological interventions.’

This talk is part of the series Invited Speakers - Faculty of Psychology. It will take place on Zoom. The link for participation in the event is the following: http://bit.ly/unidistance.