Improving Relationships Through Virtual Environments: How Seeing the World Through Victims' Eyes May Prevent Bullying

• In Event: 33.023 - Epistemic and Self-Efficacy Beliefs for Personalized Learning With Technology

Abstract

Experiencing the thoughts and feelings of a bullying victim and bystander in a virtual environment may stimulate social perspective taking (SPT) and enhance observations of similarity – fundamental social processes shown to improve relationships. In two experiments, we used a web-based virtual environment to test whether experiencing the role of a bullying victim and bystander increases SPT and similarity. In Study 1 (N=146), we find that taking on these roles in a virtual bullying scenario positively affects SPT and similarity. In Study 2 (N=122), we find that these improvements extend throughout a negotiation about issues arising from bullying. We have planned a third study to assess whether the improvements in social processes generalize to diverse student populations.

Authors

• Geoff Marietta, Harvard University

• Julianne Viola, The University of Oxford

• Nneka Ibekwe, University of Pennsylvania

• Jessica Claremon

• Hunter Gehlbach, University of California - Santa Barbara