Reading time: 7 minutes
“Live your life in real time − live and suffer directly on-screen. Think in real time − your thought is immediately encoded by the computer. Make your revolution in real time − not in the street, but in the recording studio. Live out your amorous passions in real time − the whole thing on video from start to finish.”
― Jean Baudrillard, The Perfect Crime (1996)
This is how French sociologist Jean Baudrillard (1996) describes virtual reality in his work “The Perfect Crime”. Here, Baudrillard turns detective in order to investigate a crime: the murder of reality. According to him, virtual reality creates a false reality, which takes over and turns out to be the only reality that seems perfect. That is why it is a perfect crime, as reality is killed but perfection is the final result.
However, Baudrillard states that this is just utopia. In this new world, we fool ourselves by thinking we own technology, but this is a mere illusion, where the human being disappears.
Although Baudrillard’s thinking is gripping, I do not completely agree with his conclusion. Indeed, it is true that technology and virtual reality lead us to face huge challenges, but I think this should be considered a part of the non-avoidable scientific progress. Indeed, man is a curious being by nature and curiosity allows us to discover, which is also possible nowadays thanks to virtual reality. As American researcher Frank Biocca (1995) states “Virtual reality promises a kind of transcendence of the limits of physical reality”.
This is the kind of approach that I would like to adopt and that has also been supported by different areas of psychology, including work and organizational psychology. In this area, which focuses on the health and efficiency of each employee individually and the working community as a whole, virtual reality plays a salient role.
One of its main uses is the safety enhancement of operations under dangerous work conditions: through virtual reconstruction of real environments, workers can effectively learn safety procedures and actions in both normal and emergency scenarios.
For example, in their research project, researchers Saghafian et al. (2021) investigated the implementation of virtual reality technology in the heavy machinery industry, where it represents a great tool to favor both safety and productivity.
The effectiveness of training through virtual reality in the workplace has also been studied: being immersive, virtual reality promotes active learning, which results in better performance.
In their research project, Baceviciute et al. (2022) investigated the role of immersive virtual reality tools for organizational training by conducting a study in the biotech industry.
In addition, as the workplace becomes more complex, it may lead to increasing levels of stress: the working climate is alienating, which can impact workers’ performance and job satisfaction. In this case, virtual reality can help employees learn relaxation techniques.
As an example, researchers Velana et al. (2022) analyzed the psychological effects the population experienced due to the COVID-19 crisis and emphasized that virtual reality-based interventions can facilitate positive changes in stress levels and improve mental health.
Virtual reality is used in anxiety treatment too: in the working environment, anxiety is caused by the interaction between organizational causes and the lack of coping strategies. Exposure therapy, which is applied through virtual reality, can help workers face stressful stimuli, address their phobias, and get rid of them.
For example, researchers Harris et al. (2002) conducted a research study on public speaking, where memories of fear can be activated, modified and finally overcome.
Last but not least, another application of virtual reality involves enhancing personal resources, in particular empathy and consequently leadership. In my opinion, there is a deep meaningful link between empathy and virtual reality: the former enables us to mirror what others are feeling; similarly, the latter allows individuals to step into someone else’s shoes through a perceptual illusion called embodiment.
This may be a great skill in companies: researcher Chirino-Klevans (2017) pointed out that in a global business, perceptions and thoughts towards groups from other cultural backgrounds influence how we interact with them. Thanks to virtual reality, techniques can be improved that elicit empathy and cultural awareness, which may support leadership as well.
These uses of virtual reality in organizational contexts are just examples and the implementation of virtual reality in organizations has not reached its climax yet: technology is improving day-by-day and is still a pioneering field with many areas yet to be discovered.
Considering the above scientific studies, we can all agree in saying that virtual reality fools our senses into thinking we have gone somewhere else. This is something revolutionary: books allow us to imagine it, movies allow us to see it, but virtual reality allows us to experience it.
I hope I have been able to take you through this brief journey into the universe of virtual reality, a new world that has pushed suspension of disbelief to new heights. Virtual reality is like dreaming with our eyes open; it is an entity that is real in effect but not in fact.
In the movie “The Matrix” (1999), Morpheus, one of the characters, asks: “What is “real”? How do you define “real”? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, taste and see, then “real” is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain”.
I found a possible answer to this question while watching another movie, which is titled “Inception” (2010): “Dreams feel real while we’re in them. It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange. Admit it: you don’t believe in one reality anymore.”
Indeed, nowadays we can finally believe in two realities: one of them is virtual reality.
Arianna Corbetta
Bibliography
Baceviciute, S., Cordoba, A. L., Wismer, P., Jensen, T. V., Klausen, M., & Makransky, G. (2022). Investigating the value of immersive virtual reality tools for organizational training: An applied international study in the biotech industry. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 38(2), 470-487. doi:10.1111/jcal.12630
Baudrillard, J. (1996). The Perfect Crime. England: Verso Books.
Biocca, F., & Levy, M. R. (1995). Communication in The Age of Virtual Reality. England: Routledge.
Chirino-Klevans, I. (2017). Virtual Reality Techniques for Eliciting Empathy and Cultural Awareness: Affective Human-Virtual World Interaction. International SERIES on Information Systems and Management in Creative eMedia (CreMedia), 2, 1-5. http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org/Journal
Harris, S. R., Kemmerling, R. L., & North, M. M. (2002). Brief virtual reality therapy for public speaking anxiety. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 5(6), 543-550. doi:10.1089/109493102321018187
Nolan, C., & Nolan, C. (2010). Inception. United States of America: Warner Bros.
Saghafian, M., Laumann, K., & Skogstad, M. R. (2021). Organizational Challenges of Development and Implementation of Virtual Reality Solution for Industrial Operation. Frontiers in Psychology, 12(704723), 1-21. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.704723
Velana, M., Sobieraj, S., Digutsch, J., & Rinkenauer, G. (2022). The advances of immersive virtual reality interventions for the enhancement of stress management and relaxation among healthy adults: A systematic review. Applied Sciences, 12(7309). doi:10.3390/app12147309
Wachowski, L., & Wachowski, L. (1999). The Matrix. United States of America: Warner Bros.
A.P.E. 
Lascia un commento