Altering Human Perception and Behavior through Immersive Virtual Reality

Several studies have shown that people inside Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) behave realistically when presented with complex situations. As a result a new generation of social and behavioral scientists are turning into VR to design experiments including moral dilemmas. Furthermore, using real-time motion tracking and Head-Mounted Displays it is possible to give participants an egocentric view of a co-located virtual body. Through multisensory stimulation, healthy humans can experience full body ownership and agency illusions over an avatar – as if their real body was perceptually substituted by a virtual one. This allows for manipulations beyond what would be possible in reality, i.e. altering the race, gender or body parts to explore the human perception thresholds. The effects and traces of such body substitution can be measured using subjective reporting, behavioral and objective physiological measures. Part of my research has focused on uncovering the underlying neurological mechanisms that trigger ownership, agency, and overall realistic responses inside VR. These findings are now transcending to the consumer arena with the new era of VR applications and devices called to radically change the paradigms of human computer interaction.