University of Twente Student Theses
VR-aided Victim-Offender Mediation : How Immersion in a VR Encounter Predicts Offenders' Willingness to Apologize to their Victims
Schmidt, J. (2023) VR-aided Victim-Offender Mediation : How Immersion in a VR Encounter Predicts Offenders' Willingness to Apologize to their Victims.
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| Abstract: | The goal of this study was to investigate if an avatar-based VR application (VRA) in which offenders can practice and offer their apology to a victim avatar, can pose a valuable addition to victim impact courses (VIC) to encourage offenders to reach out to their real victim. Offenders are informed about the possibility of victim-offender mediation (VOM) after VIC, but only 18% on average take the opportunity to register for a VOM programme. Using a VRA in VIC and giving offenders the opportunity to apologise to a representation of their victim could have a positive impact on VOM participation rates. Self-affirmation was manipulated to investigate if it reduces defensiveness in offenders and increases their willingness to apologize to a victim avatar. The VR apology was manipulated to test whether apologizing in VR increases offenders’ willingness to apologise to their actual victim. An experiment with 119 students was conducted where they had to think of an unresolved conflict from their life in which they have harmed someone else. Participants were randomly allocated to perform a self-affirmation task or not and to apologise to an avatar in VR or not. Overall, no effects of the experimental manipulation and therefore no support for the proposed expectations were found. However, feeling immersed and present was associated with participants willingness to apologise to their actual victim if they felt a sense of control while apologizing. This suggests that certain aspects of experiencing the VRA predict offenders’ motivation to apologize to their victim. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/94713 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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