Can virtual reality change attitudes toward homelessness?

DW (English)

Homelessness still carries a stigma. But could virtual reality help shift people's attitudes? Initial results from a project at Stanford University in California are promising.

Transcript

00:00Homelessness is on the rise.

00:03While leaders worldwide struggle to find solutions and public frustration grows, psychology professor

00:08Jeremy Bailenson is turning to virtual reality to create a deeper understanding of this complex

00:14issue.

00:15At Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab in California, he developed the immersive

00:19experience becoming homeless.

00:22It traces the path that pushes people onto the street, putting viewers in their shoes,

00:28recognizing their stories and fostering empathy.

00:32When we look at VR and we compare VR to other tools, watching a video, reading about case

00:38studies, doing role playing in the real world, what we find, VR causes behavior change and

00:47attitudinal change more than other types of interventions designed to make you think about

00:52other people.

00:53Listen, I know you're having trouble making rent.

00:57In the experience, a narrator guides participants through interactive scenarios after a sudden

01:02job loss, choosing personal objects to sell to make rent, seeking shelter on a public bus.

01:15While research on the long-term effects of VR and empathy is still limited, early findings

01:20from Bailenson students like Fernanda Herrera show promise.

01:25Fernanda showed long-term, lasting behavioral changes in measures such as how you discuss

01:32the homeless when you're writing about them, the types of verbs and adjectives you use to

01:37make them more human, to other types of more behavioral measures around intentions to volunteer.

01:43studies on VR around racism and age discrimination yielded similar results.

01:50They show that VR can indeed serve as a tool for rewiring how we relate to others.

01:57There's no way to get to that point.

01:58We can't get to that point.

01:59But we can find a way to think about it.

02:00We can find your own way to think about it.

02:01If you find a way to think about it, you can find a way to find a way to think about it.

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