Virtual Experiences for Social Perspective-Taking

This paper proposes virtual social perspective-taking (VSP). In VSP, users are immersed in an experience of another person to aid in understanding the person´s perspective. Users are immersed by 1) providing input to user senses from logs of the target person´s senses, 2) instructing users to act and interact like the target, and 3) reminding users that they are playing the role of the target. These guidelines are applied to a scenario where taking the perspective of others is crucial - the medical interview. A pilot study (n = 16) using this scenario indicates VSP elicits reflection on the perspectives of others and changes behavior in future, similar social interactions. By encouraging reflection and change, VSP advances the state-of-the-art in training social interactions with virtual experiences.