Rabindra (Robby) Ratan

Rabindra (Robby) Ratan (CV) is a Visiting Scholar in the VHIL and is also Associate Professor and AT&T Endowed Chair at Michigan State University’s Department of Media and Information, where he runs the Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab. Dr. Ratan conducts social and psychological research on the effects of human-technology interaction, focusing on how media technologies (e.g., XR/VR/AR/MR, avatars, video games, agents/AI) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., equity, well-being, motivation) across societal contexts (e.g., education, health, industry). He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect (i.e., avatar characteristics influencing user behaviors), human-AI interaction, gender stereotypes in gaming, and virtual meetings. In addition to conducting research on these phenomena, he also teaches all of his MSU classes in virtual reality (his students borrow VR headsets from the SPARTIE lab and attend class meetings in a virtual world).