The team
Project lead: Mx Lucile Bottein, staff co-lead: Dr Aneesha Singh, PhD student Miss Leya George
Department
UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC)
What happened?
Virtual reality (VR) is becoming increasingly used beyond the world of gaming; it is taking on an educational role in some cases, and may in the future facilitate remote working and learning (especially considering the rise of hybrid teaching/working with COVID). However, this may have harmful effects if not accompanied by rigorous and critical research. Specifically, using VR often involves the embodiment of an avatar, and the perceived identity of this avatar can have positive and/or negative effects on the cognition of the person embodying it. Our project aims to investigate how embodying female avatars might adversely impact implicit gender bias depending on how objectified this avatar is. Findings can indicate avenues of progress for the use of VR in educational/interventional contexts.
What advice or encouragement would you give to someone thinking of doing a ChangeMakers project?
Changemakers is a fantastic avenue to fund but also to support and organize your project. They have a large number of valuable resources and speaking with the team is always a delight. A successful project depends on many factors, one of which is a clear timeline (which accounts for the many delays and hiccups you will meet).