Visual and Behavioural Fidelity of Virtual Humans with Applications to Bystander Intervention in Violent Emergencies
Lead Research Organisation:
Bournemouth University
Department Name: Bournemouth Media School
Abstract
The aim of this project is to dramatically improve the quality of immersive social virtual environments (IVEs). By 'quality' we refer to the response of participants to virtual social situations, in particular the extent to which they respond realistically to what they perceive. By 'response' we mean at every measurable level, ranging from non-conscious physiological processes (such as changes in electrodermal activity or heart rate variability) through to overt behavioural, emotional and cognitive responses / including what they report in interviews about their subjective state of mind. By social IVEs we specifically refer to applications where one or more human participants interact with virtual humanoid characters (avatars) in a socially defined context. Specifically, our objectives are to improve the visual appearance of interactive characters and their interactive behaviour especially so that their behaviour responds appropriately to the behaviour of the participants. Third, social IVEs will be constructed that are well-studied in the social psychology literature, and which are of great societal importance, referred to as bystander behaviour in violent emergencies such as in street violence. Finally, these virtual social situations will be used in a series of experimental studies in order to test whether indeed these objectives do improve the quality of response of participants within these social IVEs.One of our goals is to exploit our research in socially useful applications, and thereby also contribute to the growing body of research that uses VEs as a laboratory for social psychological research. In particular we consider the research program of Levine and colleagues at Lancaster on bystander behaviour in violent emergencies. This research program revisits the classic 'bystander effect' in social psychology. The bystander effect suggests that the more witnesses there are to an emergency, the less likely an individual bystander is to intervene. This phenomenon was identified as a consequence of the apparent inaction of 38 witnesses to the brutal rape and murder of Kitty Genovese in New York in 1964. The bystander effect is one of the most robust and reproduced effects in social psychology. However, it lacks practical utility, since for ethical and practical reasons it is not possible to study it scientifically under controlled conditions. In this project we aim to study the bystander effect in the context of virtual environments, where other work has shown that people do tend to respond realistically to virtual social situations.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Jian Jun Zhang (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Anton Nijholt (Author)
(2009)
Special Issue CASA 2009
in COMPUTER ANIMATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS
Slater M
(2013)
Bystander responses to a violent incident in an immersive virtual environment.
in PloS one
Southern R
(2011)
Motion-Sensitive Anchor Identification of Least-Squares Meshes from Examples.
in IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics
Yang X
(2012)
Automatic cage construction for retargeted muscle fitting
in The Visual Computer
You L
(2009)
Motion in Games
| Description | Under what conditions will a bystander intervene to try to stop a violent attack by one person on another? It is generally believed that the greater the size of the crowd of bystanders, the less the chance that any of them will intervene. A complementary model is that social identity is critical as an explanatory variable. For example, when the bystander shares common social identity with the victim the probability of intervention is enhanced, other things being equal. However, it is generally not possible to study such hypotheses experimentally for practical and ethical reasons. We showed that an experiment that depicts a violent incident at life-size in immersive virtual reality lends support to the social identity explanation. Male supporters of Arsenal Football Club in England were recruited for a two-factor between-groups experiment: the victim was either an Arsenal supporter or not (in-group/out-group), and looked towards the participant for help or not during the confrontation. The response variables were the numbers of verbal and physical interventions by the participant during the violent argument. The number of physical interventions had a significantly greater mean in the in-group condition compared to the out-group. The more that participants perceived that the Victim was looking to them for help the greater the number of interventions in the in-group but not in the out-group. Verbal interventions made during their experience, and analysis of post-experiment interview data suggest that in-group members were more prone to confrontational intervention compared to the out-group who were more prone to make statements to try to diffuse the situation. In later experiments several factors where manipulated to vary the experimental results, including the size and social identity of a group of bystanders and improvements to the visual fidelity of the characters and the virtual environment. The experimental platform which was developed serves as an enabling technology, providing researchers with a robust and ethical environment by which complex social and behavioural phenomena can be evaluated. We hope in the future to explore the influence of the bystander behaviour on the participant in order to discern which actions are more likely to diffuse a conflict situation similar to the one simulated above. This work would tackle several research challenges in the area of Computer Animation, such as the synthesis of believable responses of virtual characters and the seamless interaction of performing actors interacting with a real participant within a virtual environment. |
| Exploitation Route | There are a number of applications for the simulation of violent and confrontational situations in Virtual Reality. Some of these have already been explored, or interest expressed in their development. Our platform has already been used to evaluate the behaviour of violent re-offenders. This is potentially of use to the prison services, with the goal of determining the efficacy of rehabilitation. The Ministry of Defence has expressed an interest in using a similar virtual platform as a platform for the training of service personnel to diffuse confrontational situations, particularly between persons of differing cultural backgrounds. The Police services are also interested in the use of the platform as a training technology. In addition, the results generated during our experiments are of interest to those monitoring confrontational situations remotely. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Security and Diplomacy |
| URL | http://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/virtualhumans/applications/bystander-project/ |
| Description | This joint project with the University of Lancaster and University College London, we have undertaken a systematic study using virtual reality where the perpetrator, victim and bystanders were implemented as realistic virtual humans. In this project we aimed to study the bystander effect in the context of virtual environments, where other work has shown that people respond realistically to virtual social situations. Our studies reveal interesting specific results in terms of bystander responses to violent situations. In particular, the effect of group affiliation has a strong impact on the likelihood of intervention. This suggests that those finding themselves a victim of a violent situation should single out and appeal to a bystander of a similar social grouping or ethnic background to increase the chances that a bystander might intervene. In addition, it was found that appealing directly to the bystander for help by way of looking directly at them, yielded a more emotional response, as exemplified by the heightened level of verbal intervention. These findings provide direct evidence of practical intervention strategies which can be deployed by police and emergency services. We are trying to apply our findings to develop a societal impact. At the moment, the findings have not been used in this sense yet. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2011 |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | 3D study offers clues to violence and 'bystander effect' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | The 'bystander effect' describes a phenomenon in which the greater the number of people who witness a violent incident, the less likely it is that anyone will intervene. For behavioral psychologists it is an extremely difficult subject for study but now, a virtual reality tool depicting a troubling scene in a bar, is giving them new insight. Jim Drury reports. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://in.reuters.com/video/2013/02/21/3d-study-offers-clues-to-violence-and-by?videoId=241246979 |
| Description | Bystander Reactions to Violent Situations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | BBC London Bystander Report. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rmv1hhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11NH0K23nEM |
| Description | Fight or flight - would you 'have a go'? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | How would you react if you saw someone being attacked in the street? Britain has been called a "bystander society" but new research shows we are more likely to intervene than expected. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8761745.stm |
| Description | The bystander effect |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Many people associate computer animation with the latest Hollywood blockbuster, but it can also be used to explore complex psychological and social interactions, especially where they involve violence. Researchers at the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) at BU have been doing just that. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://buresearchchronicle.org.uk/theme/technology/the-bystander-effect/ |
| Description | Walk On By |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Have we become a 'walk on by' society? The new Home Secretary, Theresa May has called on the public to 'have a go' if they witness violence on the street, promising legislation to protect 'good Samaritans' from falling foul of the law themselves. Nick Ross explores the psychology of why some people intervene and others don't. To the alarm of his family, Nick doesn't walk on by. He tends to get stuck in; once actually making a citizen's arrest. But studies have shown that the British public in general are the least likely in Europe to intervene if they witness crime or anti-social behaviour. The so-called 'bystander effect' dictates that the larger the group of people who witness a violent attack, the less likely it is that someone will intervene. The programme hears from psychologists who suspect that people often fail to intervene because they believe no-one else will get involved. This assumption is fuelled by media coverage of cases in which people have been seriously injured or even killed while bystanders stand and watch. Non-intervention becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. But Nick meets psychologist Mark Levine whose extensive study of CCTV footage of street violence suggests that groups do much more to try to defuse aggressive behaviour than is generally realised. Nick steps into a virtual reality cave to see how people's reaction to violence is being tested in frighteningly realistic scenarios using avatars and meets the psychologist who is studying a 'walk on by' syndrome on the internet. Evolutionary biology suggests that our natural, genetic instinct is to behave in an altruistic and supportive way if we witness someone being attacked. So if, in modern society, we fail to do so, something would appear to have gone badly wrong. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00strwk |