Hello, my name is Crescent Jicol and today I will be presenting our paper titled Designing
and Assessing a Virtual Reality Simulation to Build Resilience to street Harassment.
Street harassment is generally defined as unwanted sexual attention, harassment, or
objectification by a stranger in a public space, such as streets, parks, or public transportation.
It is unfortunately a globally prevalent issue that affects many
people, with 90% of women in the UK having experienced street harassment even before
the age of 17.
The fear, anger, and frustration generated by its prevalence affects many people’s
everyday lives and constrains their freedom to safely enjoy public spaces.
A study including a group of women showed that when discussing their harassment experiences,
the most common theme mentioned was the fear of physical aggression and intrusion on privacy.
Street harassment also has wider psychological impacts such as losing sense of control and
reduced self-esteem.
It has been linked to generalised anxiety, wherein individuals feel unable to relax and
fear the worst happening while in an isolated public setting.
Stress Inoculation Training (SIT) is used to prepare individuals for stressful situations
and diminish the potential for a negative psychological reaction, such as PTSD.
Especially, it helps individuals build stress tolerance by preventing panic or ‘fight
or flight’ responses through exposure.
Immersive VR can be used to enhance the effects of stress inoculation training because it
provides the user with a sense of presence and it is able to evoke reactions and emotions
similar to a real-life experience.
By exposing users to stressful stimuli in VR-enhanced training, they can adapt and perform
efficiently and at ease.
And there already exist a handful of commercial role-play-based VR training tools for sexual
harassment.
However, these tools often focus on training the user in the role of a bystander rather
than the victim.
Therefore, our study utilises a mixed method approach to investigate three research questions:
The first is how can we design a realistic simulation of street harassment?
Second, what are the ethical issues surrounding simulations of street harassment?
And third, how effective is a simulation of street harassment in eliciting realistic emotions?
To answer these research questions, we have conducted three studies.
Study 1 consisted of a user study which informed characteristics of the virtual environment
design.
It addressed the first research question by providing evidence to help designers overcome
the “fundamental source of invalidity” in-vivo role-plays, which is that people often
do not respond in a “natural fashion” due to the failure of the interaction to feel
vivid and realistic.
Study 2 consisted of interviews with experts in the field, such as charity work with victims
of street harassment, trainers for bystander intervention and the co-founder of a self-defence
centre.
The interview data was analysed via a thematic analysis and results showed that the created
experience was realistic in reproducing a street harassment scenario.
The experts considered that the experience was safe to administer if appropriate screening
was undertaken.
They also suggested that the experience could make training more practical and real, compared
to current methods.
For Study 3 we used a within participants design to investigate the effectiveness of
the created street harassment simulation.
Affording users agency in VR has been shown to increase the intensity of elicited emotions.
Accordingly, we have investigated this possibility by considering two VR conditions: the passive
condition where participants experience the simulation in VR without interacting, and
the active condition where participants experience the simulation still in VR but
can interact by verbally responding to the harasser or put their hands out in front of
them when the harasser gets too close.
In the screen condition, participants viewed the
simulation on a conventional 2D screen.
While we have measured numerous factors, I will be discussing only the most relevant
- emotional response to the simulation and whether participants found the simulation
useful or effective.
Based on related work, we posed an a priori hypotheses that our harassment simulations
would become more effective with increasing immersiveness and realism; so each variable
would increase significantly from the Screen condition to PVR and then further when
affording users agency in AVR.
Emotional response was measured using the negative affect subscale of the well validated
and widely used PANAS and also STAI, and the Pressure/Tension subscale of the IMI.
To measure for psychological preparation, we tested the participant’s empathy for
harassment victims, and the Value/ Usefulness subscale of the IMI.
In accordance with the indications of interviewed experts and requirements of the university
ethics officer, we administered the Trauma Screening Questionnaire, and only participants
who passed the questionnaire were allowed to proceed to the next stage.
The screening process was to ensure the safety of participants, as the simulation may trigger
negative emotions or trauma.
Participants who passed the screening process completed a demographics questionnaire, and
baseline measures for Empathy, PANAS, and STAI.
In the VR conditions, they were fitted with the VR headset and were given
time to adjust for comfort before the scenario started.
In the active VR condition, participants were encouraged to look at their hands to familiarise
themselves with the tracking at the start of the experience.
They were told that they could use their voice and hands to influence the situation if they
wished.
For this study we recruited 44 participants, 24 males and 20 females.
This is a short clip showing part of the active VR condition.
The virtual environment depicted a bus stop at night, and the user was approached by a
man who repeatedly asked them out and made inappropriate remarks.
In this condition the user could respond by putting their hands in front of them, in which
case the harasser took a step back, or by speaking up which has the same effect.
For emotions, ANOVA results showed that both VR conditions were significantly better at
inducing realistic emotions than the screen condition, but active VR was not significantly
greater than PVR.
This suggests that affording users the types of agency that we implemented does not significantly
impact relevant felt emotions.
Similarly, for the IMI value/ usefulness scale and for empathy, both PVR and AVR were significantly
greater than screen for the value/usefulness scale but AVR was not significantly greater
than PVR.
For empathy, PVR was significantly greater than Screen, but no significant difference
was found between the Screen and AVR conditions, or between PVR and AVR.
Gender differences were only found for empathy.
Through our studies, we were able to successfully demonstrate the superiority of using an immersive
simulation over a 2D screen in eliciting realistic emotional responses and addressed potential
ethical issues surrounding the simulations of street harassment.
According to stress inoculation training, the effectiveness of eliciting realistic emotions
is likely to translate into increased resilience and ability to cope.
Hence, we developed a tool to make preparedness training both more practical and more widely
available.
Although not validated yet for SIT, measures of intrinsic
motivation such as usefulness/value and participants comments indicating the general increase in
feeling sense of empowerment and preparedness suggest that the simulation may lead to increased
performance and positive psychological and behavioural developments.
The significantly higher empathy reported by females in all conditions and higher scores
in the IMI pressure/tension scale may be linked to the fact that a majority of harassment
victims are women.
However, the lack of gender effects in other measures imply that the simulation can be
used more widely.
To conclude, the three studies that were conducted answered our three research questions.
This could help VR designers and other stakeholders to realise the potential of immersive technology
in combating street harassment.
First, we have demonstrated that an ecologically valid simulation can effectively immerse users
and elicit realistic emotional responses.
Second, the ethical risks associated with simulating harassment in
VR that should be addressed in the design have been identified.
Third, we have evidenced the multipurpose use of VR in both increasing psychological
preparedness and enhancing awareness and empathy in potential harassers.
Thank you for listening and I will welcome any questions.