There’s an old saying: “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.” Researchers in the UK studying the nature of paranoid thoughts have discovered a unique way to gather information — using virtual reality.
An ongoing study at Kings College, London is using virtual reality technology to monitor the reactions of test subjects while interacting with others on a virtual subway ride. The simulation uses the London Tube (underground commuter train network) as a starting point for analyzing paranoid thoughts and reactions.
The initial studies have shown that approximately 40% of the general public experience paranoid thoughts when traveling by public transportation. The London Tube is a particularly good simulation to use because travelers are “cooped together” in a small confined area with strangers. The researchers analyzed subject behavior and thoughts in response to seemingly innocent actions by other virtual passengers, including simply looking in their direction, smiling, or making eye contact.
The research shows that 40% of the study’s participants interpreted such interaction as hostile or threatening in some way, a clear indication of paranoid tendencies. The study used 200 participants, all wearing virtual reality headsets. The underground train carriage presented in the simulation was populated by computer created people who either sat quietly or moved around, smiled or frowned, made eye contact or looked away, as well as other random human behaviors.
The Kings College researchers found that different participants interpreted the behaviors of the virtual characters on board in very different ways. For example, one participant might have noticed that a virtual person got up and changed seats, but attached no special meaning to this behavior at all, and in fact, viewed it as completely neutral.
But other participants witnessing the exact same behavior would interpret it as a hostile or aggressive act. Even an action as simple as a computer-generated person smiling at the subject could elicit very different responses. Some participants would label this a friendly behavior, while others would perceive it as a threat.
Until recently, in order to study these types of psycho-social behaviors and reactions, researchers had to rely on real-life social situations, and use a variety of questionnaires to determine what people were thinking at various points during the social interaction. This method was highly unreliable, as self questionnaires have been proven to be quite inaccurate in assessing states of mind. The problem is, you’re asking a person to analyze their own thinking process — which is difficult at best.
For this reason, social researchers are praising the use of virtual reality as a tool to understand the thought processes of people experiencing paranoid thoughts in social situations.
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