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22 - Virtual Reality and Prosocial Behavior
- from Part III - Machine Synthesis of Social Signals
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- By Ketaki Shriram, Stanford University, Soon Youn Oh, Stanford University, Jeremy Bailenson, Stanford University
- Edited by Judee K. Burgoon, University of Arizona, Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, Université de Genève, Maja Pantic, Imperial College London, Alessandro Vinciarelli, University of Glasgow
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- Book:
- Social Signal Processing
- Published online:
- 13 July 2017
- Print publication:
- 08 May 2017, pp 304-316
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Summary
Introduction
People have long been intrigued by the notion of a virtual space that could offer an escape from reality to new sensory experiences. As early as 1965, Sutherland envisioned that the ‘ultimate display’ would enable users to actively interact with the virtual space as if it were real, giving them “a chance to gain familiarity with concepts not realizable in the physical world” (Sutherland, 1965, p. 506). William Gibson appears to have shared this vision when coining the term ‘cyberspace’ in his 1984 novel Neuromancer, defining it as “a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts …” (p. 51). While the image may have seemed farfetched at the time, the mounting popularity of home video game consoles, massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs), and massive open online courses (MOOCs) all demonstrate that virtual reality (VR) is an increasingly integral component of our everyday lives.
Despite some romanticized versions of VR, much of the previous literature focused on its dangers. Early studies voiced concerns about how individuals would no longer be able to receive true emotional and social support online (e.g., Kraut et al., 1998) and more recent research focused on Internet addiction (e.g., Lam et al., 2009) as well as the antisocial effects of playing violent games (e.g., Bartholow, Bushman, & Sestir, 2006). Overall, the results suggest that spending extensive amounts of time in VR can result in apathetic or even violent attitudes and behavior toward others. Indeed, early conversations between Jaron Lanier, one of the pioneers of the technology, and William Gibson, who consulted Lanier while writing his manifesto, focused on this tension. Lanier envisioned prosocial uses for the technology he championed, but Gibson felt compelled to write about the less wholesome applications, saying, “Jaron, I tried. But it's coming out dark” (Lanier, 2013, p. 329).
In terms of academic research, there is a group of scholars who focus on a more positive outlook; the unique affordances of virtual environments actually promote prosocial behavior when leveraged. Recent developments show that even brief virtual interventions can increase environmental awareness, reduce racial bias, and enhance general altruistic behavior. These interventions have been found to be especially powerful when the user feels fully immersed in the virtual world.
Chapter 9 - Virtual human identification line-ups
- Edited by Caroline Wilkinson, University of Dundee, Christopher Rynn, University of Dundee
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- Book:
- Craniofacial Identification
- Published online:
- 05 May 2012
- Print publication:
- 03 May 2012, pp 101-114
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Summary
Introduction
The legal system has long relied on eyewitnesses of crimes to help identify and prosecute criminals. Eyewitness identification is arguably one of the most influential forms of evidence that can be presented to a judge or jury. The general idea behind eyewitness identification is that a witness to a crime, whether a victim or bystander, can later establish the perpetrator’s identity. It is assumed that if the witness had a good view of the crime and was paying attention to the physical characteristics of the perpetrator, then the witness’s memory will be a valid indicator of identity, particularly if the witness is certain about his or her identification. In this chapter, we will examine the current state of traditional eyewitness identification line-ups, present an overview of a recently proposed idea to utilise virtual environments and virtual humans in identification line-ups, and finally present a comprehensive review of how virtual human identification line-ups may offer advantages over traditional line-ups.
Traditional eyewitness identification line-ups
According to Wells and Olson (2003), a line-up is a procedure in which a criminal suspect (or a photograph of the suspect) is placed among other people (live line-up) or photographs (photo array), commonly referred to as fillers or foils. Line-ups and photo arrays typically contain at least six individuals or photographs, comprised of the suspect and at least five fillers. The individuals or photographs are then presented to an eyewitness, either sequentially or simultaneously, for identification. Eyewitness identification evidence is powerful; more than 75 000 people each year become criminal defendants on the basis of eyewitness identifications (National Science Foundation, 1997). Although eyewitness identification is one of the most compelling types of evidence to which a jury or judge is exposed, experimental research (Wells, 1993; Wells and Loftus, 2003) and cases of DNA exoneration (Wells and Quinlivan, 2009) have prompted scholars and practitioners to question the accuracy, confidence levels and procedures of eyewitness identification.