In a recent experiment by scientists at ICREA in Barcelona and University College London, researchers placed people into a virtual reality scenario with virtual people. They then simulated disasters, and watch how the real people reacted.
For one experiment they developed a virtual bar, which test subjects enter by donning a virtual reality (VR) headset or immersing themselves in a VR CAVE in which stereo images are projected onto the walls. As the virtual patrons socialise, drink and dance, a fire breaks out. Sometimes the virtual characters ignore it, sometimes they flee in panic. That in turn dictates how the real test subjects, immersed in the virtual environment, respond.
While the subjects obviously knew that the VR people were not real, and the models were not terribly realistic, they still suffered similar reaction as if they were. They liken this to the Stanley Milgram experiment of the 1960’s, and suggest that one very important (and often overlooked) aspect of Virtual Reality is not it’s realism, but instead the behavior and “mob mentality” within.
