Between the bars: Virtual reality and physical prison simulations link to reduced prejudice against incarcerated people

Virtual reality (VR) interventions are receiving increasing attention from research promoting positive intergroup outcomes toward marginalised groups. However, the effectiveness of VR methods, their comparison to real-world experiences, and the underlying mechanisms for enhancing intergroup relations remain debated. The present research investigates whether VR and real-world simulations in a prison environment can link to prejudice toward incarcerated people by inducing feelings of exclusion and fostering empathy for the incarcerated people's experience. Study 1 consists of a VR between-subject experiment on 138 participants who were exposed to a prison cell vs. a studio apartment virtual environment. The results testing a mixed serial-parallel mediation model showed that participants in the virtual prison (vs. the studio) reported higher exclusion, which, in turn, was associated with both emotional and cognitive empathy for incarcerated people's experience, with emotional empathy ultimately linking to reduced prejudice against incarcerated people. Study 2 consists of a within-subject experiment on 93 participants exposed to a real-world physical prison simulation. Results conceptually replicated those from Study 1: the increase in exclusion induced by the physical prison simulation predicted increases in both emotional and cognitive empathy, with the former being associated with reduced prejudice. The findings show that both virtual and physical simulations of marginalisation can lead to improved intergroup outcomes. They emphasise the key role of experienced social exclusion to unlock the benefits of immersive experiences. Also, they highlight the predominance of emotional, compared to cognitive, empathy in fostering positive intergroup outcomes. Lastly, they suggest that VR experiences can yield similar intergroup implications to physical ones.