Abstract
As virtual environments (VEs) become increasingly central to
people's lives (Terry, 2002), understanding reactions to VEs may
be as important as understanding behavior in the real world
(Yee, Bailenson, Urbanek, Chang, & Merget, 2007). Immersive
Virtual Environment Technology (IVET), which is now being used
in psychological research (Blascovich et al., 2002), can provide
greater experimental control, more precise measurement, ease
of replication across participants, and high ecological validity,
making it attractive for researchers. It also can create links
between researchers who study basic social psychological processes
and those who study new media. In two studies we examined
people's reactions as they navigated through a virtual world
and interacted with virtual people, some of whom needed help.
Participants’ compassion and tendency to experience personal
distress predicted emotional reactions (concern) and proxemic
behavior (gaze orientation and degree of interpersonal distance)
to a virtual person in need but not to a control person. The
results support the use of IVET and proxemic variables to measure
compassion unobtrusively and they encourage the use of IVET to
advance our understanding of people's behavior in and reactions
to virtual worlds and new media.
