Effect of body-gender transfer in virtual reality on the perception of sexual harassment

Abstract

While sexual harassments are inappropriate behaviors in the society, the interpretation of and sensitivity toward sexual harassment can vary by individual. Differences across individuals, such as gender, may influence whether one interprets an action to be sexually harassing or not. Virtual reality technology enables human behavior assessment without interfacing with physical danger. The present work examined whether gender and body-gender transfer in VR influenced the perception of sexually harassing behaviors, and explored the utility of emerging technology in increasing one’s awareness of behaviors that may be considered sexually harassing. Participants (n=12) embodied in virtual characters of different genders and experienced seven sexually harassing scenarios in an immersive virtual environment in random order. In general, participants provided higher rating to the sensitivity toward sexual harassment in the VR harassment scenarios than those scenarios described on paper. There was an increase in participants’ sensitivity toward sexual harassment after experiencing sexual harassment scenarios from the perspective of the victim in VR. Participants perceived higher level of sexual harassment when they embodied in female avatars, which suggested there was an effect of VR with body-gender transfer on perception of sexual harassment. There were gender differences in awareness of harassing behaviors in VR environment, and VR may be a training method to narrow gender gap and increase awareness toward sexual harassment.