Virtual regulation: Can immersive virtual reality be used to assist intergroup interventions? The moderating effect of political ideology

While emotions are pivotal in intergroup conflicts, individuals are less motivated to feel peace-promoting emotions in extreme conflicts. In the current research, we investigated whether virtual reality (VR) can be harnessed to overcome this limitation by utilizing two of its features: (a) the ability to simulate reality in an immersive way, and (b) to allow people to experience a situation from different perspectives immersively. Two studies done outside the lab (N = 346) on Jewish-Israelis showed that watching conflict-related scenes using VR increased empathy and other peace-promoting emotions and attitudes. Additionally, the results showed that VR could be used to assist emotion-regulation interventions, namely, cognitive reappraisal (CR) and perspective-taking (PT), by allowing participants to immersively experience a scene from the desired perspective (a “bystander,” detached perspective for CR and an outgroup perspective for PT). Both features were found to have a distinct contribution in affecting participants’ emotions. However, most effects were found only among rightists, suggesting VR is beneficial when motivation to feel peace-promoting emotions is low. Our findings suggest that interventions should be carefully tailored to the audience, the context, and the desired effect.