How can virtual reality help for the prevention and rehabilitation of gender violence? An overview
Dr Tania Johnston Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) EVENTLab Barcelona, Spain
Data:
24 listopada 2022
How can virtual reality help for the prevention and rehabilitation of gender violence? An overview
Gender violence against women is a complex and pervasive social problem that presents a number of challenges for its prevention.
On the one hand, attitudes towards such violence need to be modified in the general public, as they predict both perpetration and support to survivors. On the other hand, rehabilitation of perpetrators of such violence is needed, to reduce recidivism.
Immersive virtual reality (VR) offers the unique possibility of experiencing a variety of situations from a different perspective, in a safe and controlled environment. As such, it is a tool of great potential for the study of human behavior and its underlying psychological mechanisms.
Furthermore, VR embodiment, whereby people can be placed virtually in the body of another person, so that their attitudes and even behaviors are adapted to the new character they are embodying, has been validated as a powerful tool for transformation, as it allows for experiential and implicit learning.
In that context, VR has been applied to the field of gender violence with the aim to improve prevention and rehabilitation tools. Research shows that immersion in VR allows to modify empathetic skills, but also behaviours and attitudes in perpetrators and in the general population.
After giving an overview of the research conducted in the field, we will reflect upon the challenges and opportunities of the use of VR and technology as a prevention and rehabilitation tool.