A Custom Virtual Environment for Studying Social Categorization, Intergroup Contact, and Prejudice Reduction

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VR Contact is a custom-built immersive virtual environment developed to study how people perceive, categorize, and interact with members of different social groups in virtual reality. The platform allows us to systematically manipulate avatars, group membership cues, embodiment, social context, and interaction dynamics while maintaining a high level of experimental control.

VR Contact is designed to investigate the psychological processes underlying social categorization, intergroup contact, prejudice, and bias reduction. By creating controlled but socially meaningful encounters with virtual others, the environment enables researchers to examine when avatars are perceived as ingroup or outgroup members, how different forms of interaction influence attitudes, and under which conditions immersive contact can promote more positive intergroup relations.

The platform is used both as a research tool and as an experimental environment for developing and testing theoretically grounded VR interventions in social psychology.

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