Virtual Human Interaction Lab
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
- Santoso, M., Petersen, G., Bailenson, J., & Fauville, G. (2026). Underwater Virtual Reality and Situated Cognition: Comparing Ground, Docked, and Floating Conditions for Ocean Connectedness and Psychological Wellbeing. Journal of Environmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2026.102950
- Wang, P., Santoso, M., Han, E., Srirangarajan, T., & Bailenson, J. (2026). Virtual Placemaking: Self-built environments and revisiting shared memories in virtual reality increase group cohesion. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 31(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmaf023
- Bailenson, J., You, J., Markowitz, D., Petersen, G., Ratan, R., Santoso, M., & Wang, P. (2026). An Explication and Classroom Field Study of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab’s Expert (VHIL-E) LLM. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking (To Appear).
- Tao, Y., Li, J., Zhang, A., Ye, L., Bailenson, J., & Follmer, S. (2025). Audio Augmentation of Manual interactions to Support Mindfulness. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 9(4), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1145/3770706
- Santoso, M., Wang, P., Han, E., & Bailenson, J. (2025). Virtual Reality Reduces Climate Indifference by Making Distant Locations Feel Psychologically Close. In Press at Scientific Reports.