Project description
Building trust in virtual worlds
As more of our social lives shift online, understanding how to foster kindness and trust in virtual spaces is becoming critical. Virtual reality (VR) holds great promise, not just for connection, but for inclusion, offering safe spaces across borders. However, negative interactions can still harm, even in these immersive worlds. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the VIBE project is exploring how three key factors (anonymity, avatar identification, and belief about whether one is interacting with a human or AI) shape prosocial behaviour in VR. By testing these through trust games, VIBE aims to identify what makes virtual interactions more positive. The insights could help design VR environments that truly support collaboration, well-being, and equality.
Objective
Social interaction is the glue of society and positive interactions can increase well-being; however, negative interactions can also lead to harm. Establishing prerequisites for increasing positive experiences and mitigating negative consequences in different situations is of utmost importance. Since more and more of our social lives are happening in virtual interactions, this knowledge is especially critical for immersive virtual 3D worlds called virtual reality (VR). VR offers exciting opportunities to reduce inequality, a Sustainable Development Goal, e.g. by creating safe spaces for minorities regardless of country borders or physical distance. Therefore, the overall objective of VIBE is to explore the influence of three key aspects of virtual social interactions on prosocial behaviour in VR: (1) anonymity: whether one knows who they are interacting with and whether they are known to their interaction partner, (2) self-identification with the avatar: to which degree a person identifies with the avatar representing them, and (3) agent-belief: whether a person believes they are interacting with another human or with an AI-controlled agent. Building on my extensive experience researching physically-embodied social interactions, I will test the influence of these three factors on prosocial behaviour in social interactions in two experiments using a trust game in VR. VIBE will scrutinise the factors that facilitate prosocial behaviour in virtual interactions. Incorporating these factors into VR design and implementation will help to realise VRs full potential to achieve social good, by increasing online collaboration and mitigating harmful experiences. The MSCA postdoctoral fellowship will allow me to build strategic international collaborations, add conducting interactive experiments in VR to my portfolio of skills and use these skills to establish myself as an upcoming leading expert in science of social interactions, both in virtual and physically-embodied spaces.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
80539 Planegg
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.