Infinite Reality

SO WHAT?
The results of these and other virtual-reality studies demonstrate that virtual behavior is, in fact, “real.” In so many facets of social behavior, ranging from financial decisions and the way blood flows through the body, to the manner people stand in a room, people use the same template they use in grounded reality and apply it to agents and avatars in virtual reality

For example, the interpersonal distance rules in American culture tend to involve greater distances than those in other countries. The United States is a country that likes its space. Indeed, many of its citizens become uncomfortable when a stranger from another culture comes too near.

WHEN THE TWO OF US INITIALLY BECAME COLLEAGUES AT THE RESEARCH Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the late 1990s, one of the tasks we faced was to prove the value of using virtual reality to perform social psychology experiments

virtual environments incorporating what we consider the most important factors: theory of mind, communicative realism, response system level, self-relevance, and context.

Third, and less important than the other two, is photographic realism.

The second, anthropometric realism, is the presence of body parts that typically are used for communication.

The first, movement realism, is how well virtual body parts move

n virtual reality, nonverbal behavior is particularly relevant. Nonverbal communication is largely a function of its three component variables. These variables are: movement realism (postures, gestures, and facial expressions, for example), anthropometric realism (recognizable quality of human body parts), and photographic realism (how much these representations look like an actual human

virtual reality presents a different challenge, because people are not physically face-to-face with one another while they interact

virtual reality is revolutionizing the human condition, facilitating social interaction with more “others” than our ancestors ever imagined