Five canonical findings from 30 years of psychological experimentation in virtual reality

Jeremy N. Bailenson (), Cyan DeVeaux, Eugy Han, David M. Markowitz, Monique Santoso and Portia Wang
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Jeremy N. Bailenson: Stanford University
Cyan DeVeaux: Stanford University
Eugy Han: Stanford University
David M. Markowitz: Michigan State University
Monique Santoso: Stanford University
Portia Wang: Stanford University

Nature Human Behaviour, 2025, vol. 9, issue 7, 1328-1338

Abstract: Abstract Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging medium used in work, play and learning. We review experimental research in VR spanning three decades of scholarship. Instead of exhaustively representing the landscape, our unique contribution is providing in-depth reviews of canonical psychological findings balanced across various domains within psychology. We focus on five findings: the benefit of being there depends on the activity; self-avatars influence behaviour; procedural training works better than abstract learning; body tracking makes VR unique; and people underestimate distance in VR. These findings are particularly useful to social scientists who are new to VR as a medium, or those who have studied VR but have focused on specific psychological subfields (for example, social, cognitive or perceptual psychology). We discuss the relevance for researchers and media consumers and suggest future areas for human behaviour research.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02216-3

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