Our Mission
Since its founding in 2003, researchers at the Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) have sought to better understand the psychological and behavioral effects of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). VR is finally widely available for consumers, and every day we are seeing new innovations. It is critical, now more than ever, that we seek answers to these important questions: What psychological processes operate when people use VR and AR? How does this medium fundamentally transform people and society? What happens when anyone can have a perfect experience at the touch of a button? And how can we actively seek to create and consume VR that enhances instead of detracts from the real world around us?
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Recent Research
- Wang, P., & Bailenson, J. (2025). Virtual Reality as a Research Tool (In Press). Reimer, L. van Swol., & A. Florack (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Communication and Social Cognition.
- Tao, Y., Egelman, J., & Bailenson, J. (2024). I Feel You: Impact of Shared Body Sensations on Social Interactions in Virtual Reality. IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality.
- Bailenson, J. (2024). Virtual Reality. In M. C. Frank & A. Majid (Eds.). Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.83209e91