THE USE OF VIRTUAL REALITY AND NARRATIVE IMMERSION TO REDUCE PREJUDICE

Abstract

This article examines whether exposure to a story can assist in prejudice reduction toward Black people. In this study, different levels of narrative immersion were used to test reduction in prejudice both explicitly and implicitly. Participants were each assigned to a different level of immersion of an adaptation of the story “Traveling While Black,” then had to answer survey questions afterward. The control group was exposed to the story after answering the survey questions. The different levels of immersion included were a script adaptation, a two-dimensional adaptation, and a Virtual Reality adaptation of the story. The measures included were the Modern Racism Scale, Attitudes Toward Whites scale, Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale, and a Behavioral Intention measure. Findings revealed there were no significant differences between groups and no effects compared to the control group, however, there were interesting patterns observed with comparison to different measures.