Virtual Superheroes: Using Superpowers in Virtual Reality to Encourage Prosocial Behavior

By Robin S. Rosenberg, Shawnee Baughman, Jeremy N. Bailenson. PLoS ONE, 2013

361 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background Recent studies have shown that playing prosocial video games leads to greater subsequent prosocial behavior in the real world. However, immersive virtual reality allows people to occupy avatars that are different from them in a perceptually realistic manner. We examine how occupying an avatar with the superhero ability to fly increases helping behavior. Principal Findings Using a two-by-two design, participants were either given the power of flight (their arm movements were tracked to control their flight akin to Superman’s flying ability) or rode as a passenger in a helicopter, and were assigned one of two tasks, either to help find a missing diabetic child in need of insulin or to tour a virtual city. Participants in the “super-flight” conditions helped the experimenter pick up spilled pens after their virtual experience significantly more than those who were virtual passengers in a helicopter. Conclusion The results indicate that having the “superpower” of flight leads to greater helping behavior in the real world, regardless of how participants used that power. A possible mechanism for this result is that having the power of flight primed concepts and prototypes associated with superheroes (e.g., Superman). This research illustrates the potential of using experiences in virtual reality technology to increase prosocial behavior in the physical world.

Subfields: Social Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/872c17008a1874b8257f0489e03ae0636673e5ba

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Citations in the corpus

Empathy in Virtual Agents and Robots (2017, background): “Embodying a character, or even experiencing flying in a virtual reality setting (like a superhero), has been shown to lead to more prosocial behaviour (see the work by the Bailenson team (Rosenberg et al. 2013)).”
Building long-term empathy: A large-scale comparison of traditional and virtual reality perspective-taking (2018, background): “For example, Rosenberg, Baughman, and Bailenson [55] measured intention to help and actual helping behaviors, and although the participants in the experimental condition exhibited more helping behaviors than those in the control condition, there was no significant PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/”
Real Virtuality: A Code of Ethical Conduct. Recommendations for Good Scientific Practice and the Consumers of VR-Technology (2016, background): “Rosenberg et al. (2013) had subjects perform tasks in a virtual city.”