A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT TO CREATE SOCIAL SITUATIONS:FIRST STEP TO A VIRTUAL REALITY EXPOSURE THERAPY SYSTEM FOR SOCIAL PHOBIA

摘要

This paper describes a study to examine how a social situation can be simulated in a virtual environment, and how to provoke the same behavioral response as in a real life social situation. The aim is to create new Virtual Reality worlds for treating social phobia. Two cases were examined in a virtual environment to assess whether it was able to recreate social behavior of people. First, we examined if participants who enter a crowded room in the virtual environment prefer to take a seat in a chair that is close to them. Secondly, we investigated if participants in the virtual environment have the tendency to physically distance themselves from strangers when choosing a seat in a room full of strangers. We conclude that a social situation can be recreated in a virtual world.