Browsing by Author "Friedman, Doron"

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The enemy's gaze: Immersive virtual environments enhance peace promoting attitudes and emotions in violent intergroup conflicts
(2019) Hasson, Yossi; Schori-Eyal, Noa; Landau, Daniel; Hasler, Béatrice S.; Levy, Jonathan; Friedman, Doron; Halperin, Eran
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Perspective-taking is essential for improving intergroup relations. However, it is difficult to implement, especially in violent conflicts. Given that immersive virtual reality (VR) can simulate various points of view (POV), we examined whether it can lead to beneficial outcomes by promoting outgroup perspective-taking, even in armed conflicts. In two studies, Jewish- Israelis watched a 360° VR scene depicting an Israeli-Palestinian confrontation from different POVs-outgroup's, ingroup's while imagining outgroup perspective or ingroup's without imagined perspective-taking. Participants immersed in the outgroup's POV, but not those who imagined the outgroup's perspective, perceived the Palestinians more positively than those immersed in the ingroup's POV. Moreover, participants in the outgroup's POV perceived the Palestinian population in general more favorably and judged a real-life ingroup transgression more strictly than those in the ingroup's POV, even five months after VR intervention. Results suggest that VR can promote conflict resolution by enabling effective perspective- taking.
Virtual Embodiment Using 180 degrees Stereoscopic Video
(2020-07-07) Landau, Daniel H.; Hasler, Béatrice S.; Friedman, Doron
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
One of the most exciting possibilities of virtual reality is inducing in participants the illusion of owning a virtual body. This has become an established methodological paradigm allowing the study of the psychological and neural correlates of various scenarios that are impossible in the real world, such as gender or age switching. Thus far, full-body ownership illusions have been implemented by using real-time body tracking and avatars based on computer-generated imagery (CGI). We propose an alternative technique to induce perceived ownership over a (photorealistic) virtual body using 180 degrees stereoscopic video, synchronous touch, and narration. We describe the technical components of our novel technique and an example implementation as part of a science-art project that enables participants to experience virtual bodies of different ages, and present the results of an experimental evaluation study based on this experience. Consistent with previous virtual embodiment studies using CGI-based techniques, we found that participants accept a photorealistic virtual body as their own irrespective of its appearance as indicated by similar ratings of the strength of body ownership over a virtual body of a child versus an adult. We further show that our novel technique can alter participants' cognition in accordance with the characteristics of their virtual body. Specifically, young adult participants who were embodied in the virtual body of a child significantly overestimated the duration of the virtual reality experience compared to a control group who was embodied in a virtual body of their own age. This finding corresponds to chronological age differences in time estimations and extends previous research on virtual child embodiment. Overall, these findings provide initial evidence for the potential of our novel technique to create photorealistic embodiment experiences with comparable psychological effects as have been found using CGI-based techniques while reducing the costs and technical complexity in the production and application of virtual body ownership illusions.
Virtual reality-based conflict resolution: The impact of immersive 360° video on changing view points and moral judgment in the context of violent intergroup conflict
(2021-08) Hasler, Béatrice S.; H. Landau, Daniel; Hasson, Yossi; Schori-Eyal, Noa; Giron, Jonathan; Levy, Jonathan; Halperin, Eran; Friedman, Doron
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
We present an experimental study conducted in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict that examined the effect of immersive 360° video on inducing a more critical perception of the ingroup’s actions in the conflict. An immersive experience of a simulated conflict scenario filmed from the outgroup’s point of view led to the judgment of the ingroup actors’ behavior as less moral and less justified compared to watching the same scenario as a two-dimensional video. This effect was not mediated through increased outgroup perspective-taking and empathy but through higher levels of hostile emotions toward the ingroup actors, which in turn were influenced by an increased sense of presence and engagement in the immersive experience. These findings provide initial evidence for the still widely unexplored potential of virtual reality as a new method for conflict resolution.
Young generations’ hopelessness perpetuates long-term conflicts
(2023-03-25) Hasler, Béatrice S.; Leshem, Oded A.; Hasson, Yossi; Landau, Daniel H.; Krayem, Yara; Blatansky, Chen; Baratz, Guy; Friedman, Doron; Psaltis, Charis; Cakal, Huseyin; Cohen-Chen, Smadar; Halperin, Eran
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Transforming long-term conflicts into peaceful intergroup relations is one of the most difficult challenges for humanity. Such meaningful social changes are often driven by young people. But do young people living in contexts of long-term conflicts believe that change is even possible? In a series of six studies (Ntotal = 119,671) over two decades and across two unrelated intractable conflicts in Israel/Palestine and Cyprus, we found that younger (compared to older) generations from both respective rival groups have less hope for peace, and consequently less conciliatory attitudes. We also show that this gradual improvement of peace-promoting emotions and attitudes with increasing age can be experimentally accelerated in young people through a virtual reality-based aging simulation. These findings provide a new perspective on the fundamental question of why long-term conflicts are so difficult to resolve and highlight the importance of instilling hope in young generations to advance peace processes.