Confrontational Behaviour in Virtual Reality: a study of user response

The following thesis presents a method to compare the affective response of participants in two conditions, virtual reality (VR) and 2D display, to a confrontational avatar in a virtual betting shop. This thesis is motivated by workers in betting shops who regularly face confrontational customers, with the aim of recommending VR technology as a medium to facilitate experiential training for these workers. A two condition, between-subjects study was conducted measuring change of state anxiety and sense of presence recorded using self-report questionnaires. The results of this study conclude that participants in the VR condition experience a greater sense of presence over participants in the 2D display condition, in all four sub-scales of the ITC-SOPI. The study also concludes that participants in both conditions experience a significant increased sense of state anxiety recorded with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory after exposure to the confrontational avatar, with participants in the VR condition experiencing a larger increase in state anxiety than participants in the 2D condition. This study demonstrates the feasibility of VR as a potential training solution for workers of betting shops in dealing with confrontational customers. To accommodate the study, an application was designed and produced to work on both VR and 2D display technologies with a focus on ensuring the virtual environment and confrontational avatar was as believable as possible. An inter-disciplinary team was brought together to produce the confrontational avatar using motion capture technology. The result of the inter-disciplinary workflow is a produced avatar that was successful in producing an affective response in participants in both conditions. To finalise the production of the application, a method to ensure the avatar appeared at a normalised distance from the participants in both conditions is proposed of which has not been explored previously