Inducing and measuring identity levels in professional rugby players during immersion in an interactive virtual environment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51224/SRXIV.535Keywords:
Social identity, Virtual reality, Mental preparationAbstract
During a game, players experience an important emotional variability, especially due to a cognitive appraisal, which notably involves a self-categorization process. However, designing a mental training using the contextual elements of a game is still a challenge. Moreover, social situations can be recreated in virtual reality and it has been demonstrated that people tend to have realistic emotional and behavioural reactions to it. In this study, we recreated, in virtual reality, one of the key situations that players can encounter during a rugby game, an essay. After an embodiment phase, participants were standing on the field with other avatars representing the other players, surrounded by an audience of virtual supporters. We used different visual and auditory parameters creating two different kinds of social feedback. In the first condition the social feedback was aimed at inducing social identity, in the second condition the social feedback received in the virtual environment was aimed at inducing personal identity. We measured participant’s identity level before and after each condition, using interactive visual analogue scales inside the virtual environment. We also measured levels of presence and embodiment using the same method. Emotional states were measured using an interactive adaptation of Russel’s affect grid, inside the virtual environment as well. Our experiment presents an innovative method aimed at inducing and measuring different identity levels in virtual reality.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Solène Neyret, Julien Pellet, Julien Ryard, Mickaël Campo, Jean-Rémy Chardonnet (Author)
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