This is a Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER). The purpose of the project is to provide an empirical assessment of the value of immersive virtual environments as a methodological tool in social psychology. Virtual environment technology has advanced to the point where freely-mobile individuals can be placed into contexts that simulate physical and social environments. While this technology has broad commercial relevance, it also has important potential for the social and behavioral sciences. This potential has not received much scientific or scholarly study, which is the purpose of this exploratory investigation.
