Navigating Prejudice in Virtual Reality: Direct, Indirect, and Secondary Transfer Effects of Positive and Negative Intergroup Contact in VR

Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a novel tool in social psychology research, offering great opportunities for exploring social dynamics in immersive simulations of intergroup scenarios. In recent years, VR has garnered significant attention as a promising avenue for studying prejudice and developing interventions aimed at its reduction. Despite this growing interest, our knowledge of the effectiveness of prejudice-reducing interventions in VR remains limited, as does our understanding of the challenges and limitations inherent in this new technology.Intergroup contact theory (Allport, 1954), a foundational concept in social psychology, posits that positive interactions between members of different social groups can lead to reduced prejudice and better intergroup attitudes. Extensive research spanning decades has demonstrated the efficacy of intergroup contact interventions across various groups and in both direct and indirect forms of contact (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006; Lemmer & Wagner, 2015). However, the applications and impact of intergroup contact within VR environments have yet to be comprehensively explored. This dissertation seeks to address these gaps by systematically investigating the effects and features of intergroup contact interventions in VR.