Simulating Social Emotion Regulation in Virtual Reality

Effect of Virtual Social Support Following Ostracism in a Cyberball Game

Authors

  • Lina Stallmann Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1549-9433
  • Michel Tran Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg; Faculty of Psychology, Unidistance Suisse
  • David Rudrauf Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva; Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9621-1800
  • Daniel Dukes Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8360-849X
  • Andrea Christiane Samson Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva; Faculty of Psychology, Unidistance Suisse https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6807-3132

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v18i07.29419

Keywords:

Virtual reality, Social emotion regulation, Social support, Agent, Social exclusion

Abstract


Virtual reality (VR) is a valuable research tool offering advantages in terms of high experimenter control and standardization in the simulation of vivid personal and social experiences. It has been used for assessments and training in social cognition with the use of virtual agents instead of face-to-face interactions – but its potential for the study of social emotion regulation has, perhaps surprisingly, largely remained untapped. The present study evaluates a novel immersive VR scenario designed to study the efficacy of social support by a virtual agent using a modified version of Cyberball, an established paradigm to induce the feeling of ostracism. Participants embodied a new pupil in a virtual school environment and played Cyberball, after which they either did or did not receive emotional support. Self-reports and psychophysiological markers demonstrated that the negative impact of social exclusion in Cyberball was successfully replicated, while participants also reported a significant improvement in emotional state after being supported by the virtual agent. These results indicate the potential of the developed scenario for research on social emotion regulation in immersive VR. Future studies could aim to test the efficacy of social support for people with difficulties in self-regulation, for example individuals with high social anxiety, with a view to developing training programs in VR.

Author Biographies

Lina Stallmann, Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva;

Lina Stallmann is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Special Education of the University of Fribourg, Rue St-Pierre Canisius 21, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. She is member of the Doctoral School of the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences at the University of Geneva, Chemin des Mines 12, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland (email: lina.stallmann@unifr.ch).

Michel Tran, Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg; Faculty of Psychology, Unidistance Suisse

Michel Tran is a scientific collaborator and programmer at the Institute of Special Education of the University of Fribourg, Rue St-Pierre Canisius 21, 1700 Fribourg, and at the Faculty of Psychology of Unidistance Suisse, Schinerstrasse 18, 3900 Brig, Switzerland (email: michel.trann@gmail.com).

David Rudrauf, Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva; Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva

David Rudrauf is a professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Paris-Saclay and the founder and CEO of Projective Consciousness Robotics (email: david.rudrauf@universite-paris-saclay.fr).

Daniel Dukes, Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva

Daniel Dukes is a lecturer at the Department of Special Education and a research and teaching fellow at the Institute for Family Research and Counselling, both at the University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland, and is affiliated to the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences at the University of Geneva, Chemin des Mines 12, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland. He is also co-editor of the Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction series at Cambridge University Press (email: daniel.dukes@unifr.ch).

Andrea Christiane Samson, Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva; Faculty of Psychology, Unidistance Suisse

Andrea Samson is an associate professor at the Faculty of Psychology of Unidistance Suisse, Schinerstrasse 18, 3900 Brig, and has a professorship funded by the Swiss National Research Foundation at the Institute of Special Education of the University of Fribourg, Rue St-Pierre Canisius 21, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. She is director of the chEERS Lab and part of the executive committee of the Society for Affective Science as the conference program co-chair for the Annual Meeting 2023 (email: andrea.samson@unifr.ch, andrea.samson@unidistance.ch).

Cover iJET Vol. 18 No. 07 (2023)

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Published

2023-04-05

How to Cite

Stallmann, L., Tran, M., Rudrauf, D., Dukes, D., & Samson, A. C. (2023). Simulating Social Emotion Regulation in Virtual Reality: Effect of Virtual Social Support Following Ostracism in a Cyberball Game. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 18(07), pp. 4–27. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v18i07.29419

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 07 (2023)

Section

Papers

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Copyright (c) 2023 Lina Stallmann, Michel Tran, David Rudrauf, Daniel Dukes, Andrea Christiane Samson

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.