From June 24 to Aug. 1, VHIL is testing about 1,000 participants at Stanford’s White Plaza and the San Jose Tech Museum under a variety of conditions to induce empathy. Each volunteer participant is randomly assigned one of four conditions, and in virtual reality, participants wear Oculus Rift to experience what it’s like to be homeless from a first-person perspective.
“They see a series of four scenes: experiencing what it is like to go through an eviction, lose their apartment and job, sleep out of their car and eventually sleep on a bus at night to stay off the streets,” said VHIL project manager Elise Ogle ’15.
Throughout the data collection process, the researchers survey participants to assess their levels of empathy towards others, as well as their “predisposition to empathize,” Ogle said.
See the full story here: http://www.stanforddaily.com/2016/08/01/virtual-human-interaction-lab-uses-virtual-reality-to-foster-empathy-for-homeless-community/