Using virtual reality (VR) to examine risky behavior that is mediated by interpersonal contact, such as agreeing to have sex, drink, or smoke with someone, offers particular promise and challenges. Social contextual stimuli that might trigger impulsive responses can be carefully controlled in virtual environments (VE), and yet manipulations of risk might be implausible to participants if they do not feel sufficiently immersed in the environment. The current study examined whether individuals can display adequate evidence of presence in a VE that involved potential interpersonally-induced risk: meeting a potential dating partner. Results offered some evidence for the potential of VR for the study of such interpersonal risk situations. Participants’ reaction to the scenario and risk-associated responses to the situation suggested that the embodied nature of virtual reality override the reality of the risk’s impossibility, allowing participants to experience adequate situational embedding, or presence.

中文翻译：

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在虚拟环境中感知人际交往风险。

使用虚拟现实（VR）来检查由人际交往所介导的危险行为，例如同意与某人发生性行为，饮酒或吸烟，会带来特别的希望和挑战。在虚拟环境（VE）中，可以谨慎地控制可能触发冲动性反应的社交情境刺激，但是如果参与者没有充分沉浸在环境中，那么对参与者的风险操纵可能就难以置信。本研究研究了个体是否可以显示出存在潜在的人际交往风险的VE中存在的充分证据：与潜在的约会对象约会。结果提供了一些证据，表明VR可以用于研究这种人际风险情况。