Immersive virtual reality: Criminology’s key enabling technology? (external event)

Conférencier/animateur: Prof. Dr. Dr. Jean-Louis van Gelder (MPI-CSL – Department of Criminology)

Abstract:

Immersive virtual reality (VR) offers a series of merits for social science and behavioral research, such as its ability to achieve high levels of ecological validity without compromising internal validity, reproducibility, and the possibility of (near) real-time observation of behavior in unobtrusive ways. For the study of criminal behavior and other types of antisocial conduct, however, it offers several additional, sometimes less evident, affordances.

In this talk, I will focus on three specific such affordances, namely the ability of VR to study behavior that normally occurs outside of our field of view (e.g., burglary), the possibility to have research participants embody a character with properties that differ from their own characteristics (e.g., someone from the opposite sex, a future self), and the ability to elicit and measure intense emotions (e.g., anger). I will illustrate these affordances with examples of research from my own group and that of others.