41
Virtual Worlds, Real Peace: Can Virtual Worlds Facilitate Conflict Resolution? Doron Friedman, Sammy Ofer School of Communications, The Interdisciplinary Center

Virtual Worlds, Real Peace: Can Virtual Worlds Facilitate Conflict Resolution? Doron Friedman, Sammy Ofer School of Communications, The Interdisciplinary

  • View
    214

  • Download
    1

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Virtual Worlds, Real Peace:

Can Virtual Worlds Facilitate Conflict Resolution?

Doron Friedman,Sammy Ofer School of Communications,

The Interdisciplinary Center

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Acknowledgements

• Sharon Joffe, IDC• Tsahi Hayat, IDC• EU Project – Presenccia• UNLV-IDC Project

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Agenda

• Virtual reality and virtual worlds• Scientific research of human

behavior in virtual environments• Some proposals for conflict

resolution using virtual worlds

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Contact Hypothesis

Contact under certain conditions, such as equal status, cooperation towards a superordinate goal, and institutional support, will create a positive intergroup encounter, which, in turn, will bring about an improvement in intergroup relations.

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

contact

mediated

?

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Indirect mediated contact?

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

“6-degrees of separation”

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

But what is the quality of mediated contacts?

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

The mediated contact hypothesis?

• Under conditions C1,C2,C3,… contact among rival groups can reduce hostility (as measured by M1,M2,…) by a factor of X

• Under conditions C1,C2,C3,… mediated contact among rival groups can reduce hostility (as measured by M1,M2,…) by a factor of X’

• What is the relation between X and X’?• How can we make X’=X or even X’>X?

Advanced Virtuality Lab

• Research themes: virtual reality, virtual worlds, neuro-physiological interfaces

• http://www.idc.ac.il/communications/avl/

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Highly-Immersive Virtual Reality (10 years ago)

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Some Presence Definitions

• ‘The sense of “being there”’ (Held & Durlach, Sheridan, Zeltzer: premier issue of PRESENCE, 1992)

• ‘A perceptual illusion of nonmediation’ (Lombard and Ditton, 1997)

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Presencia EU Project

(2003-2006)

UCL CS

UCL ION

g.Tec, AustriaTUG Graz Austria

UMH, Spain

Technion, Israel

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Presence – our defintion• Successful substitution of real sense

data by computer-generated sense data

• ‘Successful’ – response is similar to expected response in reality

• ‘Response’ –– Low level physiological high level

cognitive and emotional– Includes verbal responses about ‘being

there’– Response includes potential for interaction

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Social Presence, Co-Presence

Is there a sense of presence in online virtual worlds (such

as Second Life)?

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Our SL Bots Version 1.0

• Implemented in LSL• Wander around (walking) and look for

avatars• Collect information about the avatars

they meet (e.g., age, proximity, name)• Interact with avatars

– Animations (50, however..)– Greeting– Spatial behavior

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Hall: Proxemics (1960s)

1. Intimate space - < 1.5 feet2. Personal space 1.5-4 feet3. Social space 4-12 feet4. Public space > 12 feet

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Proxemics of interacting avatars

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Non-interacting couples

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Spatial response: An automated experiment

• Is there an equivalent for a posture shift in SL?

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Method

• Bot looked for avatars alone, stood 4 meters from them, greeted them, waited 2 seconds, and moved to a distance of 1.2 meters

• Observed whether they move within 10 seconds

• Automated experiment• However: needs manual supervision

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Results

“subjects” minutes observed

baseline 49 172 65

experiment

28 4:40 12 1.76

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

The online-behavior spectrum hypothesis

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Virtual Peace: Some suggestions

• Tele-socialization of physically remote people

• Co-located virtual studio• Inducing empathy

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Virtual Group Discussion

• Experiment: comparing face-to-face discussions (of global warming) with a similar discussion in a virtual world

• Preliminary results…• With Tomer Hendl, Amit Lavie-Dinur, and Yuval

Karniel

Communication Across Borders, July 08, IDC

Communication Issues

• Synchronous vs Async.– Pace is important; timely responses

are important for empathy

• Video conference vs. VR/VE– Sense of spatial presence– VR can preserve anonymity