2018/10/13 by Erick Jose Ramirez, Erick José Ramirez
Computer Science · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
paper · doi:10.1080/09515089.2018.1532073
openalex publication_date 2018/10/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We argue that moral judgment studies currently conducted utilizing virtual reality (VR) devices must confront a dilemma as a result of how virtual environments are designed and how those environments are experienced. We first begin by describing the contexts present in paradigmatic cases of naturalistic moral judgments. We then compare these contexts to current traditional (vignette-based) and VR-based moral judgment research. We show that, contra to paradigmatic cases, vignette-based and VR-based moral judgment research often fails to accurately model the situational features of paradigmatic moral judgments. In particular, we compare and contrast six recent VR studies to support our view that only simulations high in context-realism and perspectival-fidelity can produce “virtually-real experiences.” After analyzing the constituents of a virtually-real experience, we go on to propose guidelines for the creation of VR studies. These guidelines serve two purposes. First, we aim to increase the ecological validity of such studies to advance our understanding of moral judgments. Second, we believe that such guidelines should inform how Institutional Review Boards assess VR research. We show that our guidelines are urgently needed, given the current lax review standards in place.