How augmented reality affects people's behavior

 

In a new study led by Jeremy Bailenson, a communication professor at the Humanities School and science, the researchers found that after people had experience in augmented reality (AR) - simulated by wearing glasses that produce computer-generated content to the real-world environment - Their interactions in the physical world change too, even with AR devices removed. For example, people avoid sitting in a chair they just saw a virtual sitting person. The researchers also found that participants seemed to be influenced by the presence of virtual people in the same way as him if real people were next to them. This finding is set to publish May 14 at PLOOS one.

Their findings reflect a lot of Bailenson's research has been done on Virtual Reality (VR). While VR seeks to simulate a real-life environment and issue users from current settings, AR Technology Layer digital information above the user's physical environment.

Bailenson said AR glasses today can project a realistic 3D version of the real person in real-time to the physical environment of the glasses. This allows for groups of people around the world to make eye contact and communicate nonverbally by other nuances - something that must be achieved by video conferencing.

Researching the effect of AR.

To check how AR affects the way people behave in social situations, researchers recruited 218 participants and conducted three studies. In the first two experiments, each participant interacts with a virtual avatar called Chris who will sit in a rear seat in front of them.

The first study replicates the findings of traditional psychology is known as social inhibitory. Just like people compliment the tasks easy and struggling with more challenging when they have someone watching them in the real world, the same survive when an avatar watched study participants in augmented reality, the researchers found.

Research participants resolved an easy anagram faster but performed poorly on the complex when Chris avatar was seen in their Vision field.

Another study tested whether participants would follow the social cues received when interacting with the Chris avatar. It is measured by tracking whether participants will sit in the chair that the previous Chris avatar sat.

The researchers found that all participants who were wearing AR headsets sitting in a blank seat next to Chris rather than sitting right on the avatar. From the participants who were asked to release the headset before choosing their seats, 72 percent still chose to sit in a blank seat next to the place Chris sat before.

Affected social connection

In the third study, the researchers examined how AR affected social relations between two people who were having a conversation while one of them used an AR headset. The researchers found that those wearing AR glasses reported feeling less socially connected with their conversation partners.

This research is supported by two grants from the National Science Foundation.