Ricerc@Sapienza

The purpose of this proposal is to test if the virtual reality through embodiments conditions may reduce implicit and explicit prejudice towards migrants, and which conditions may moderate this effect. We plan to conduct two studies in which the participants will be brought into embodying a migrant in a virtual reality (VR) environment. Study 1 will be divided into two phases. In the first phase, the participants (N = 500) will respond to a questionnaire, whereas in the second phase a reduced number of participants will take part of a virtual reality setting. This experimental study will investigate whether the manipulation of behaviour of an out-group member (positive vs. neutral) may decrease racial prejudice and infrahumanisation effect. In Study 2 the VR experience will reproduce the scenario in which a refugee (coming from a Middle-East country) is interrogated by an immigration officer regarding his/her background. The participants are going to embody a refugee avatar, trying to convince the Officer to approve their asylum applications. Here, the perspective-taking strategy will be based on exploiting the humanitarian side of participants, as they could be put through what refugees experience when they first arrive to Italy.