Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

Social Behaviour in VR Spaces

Project Phases

Mapping Social Behaviour in Social VR Spaces that Simulate Metaverse-like Environments

Project overview

Year of project

2022 - ongoing

Members

Understanding the social behaviour of the young users of virtual spaces and addressing unsafe situations in the metaverse in order to create a safer space for the next generation.

Exploring the social behavior of young people in metaverse-like settings in order to identify possible mechanisms about their attitude. This will help to understand unsafe situations in the metaverse and create a safer space for the next generation.

We conducted virtual ethnographic research by observing the behavior of young people in social VR spaces, including 26 qualitative interviews about physical life dating mechanisms represented in virtual spaces and avoidance of harassment situations.

Project Phases

Literature review

May 2022 – Oct 2022

In this research phase we uncovered the already existing similar research projects and learned about their methods and findings. During this phase we mapped the international network of researchers and institutions so later we could also start joint research initiatives.

Nov 2022 – Dec 2022

Guidelines and pilot interview

In this phase we established the research guidelines, goals, ethical framework. We defined how to reach out to interviewees, and we conducted the first interviews to test the guidelines.

Semi-structured interviews

Jan 2023 – Mar 2023

After evaluating the pilot interviews, we started to make the semi-structured interviews with young VR Chat users, in cooperation with ELTE PPK. The interviews were anonymous, done via video conference or in text chat.

Evaluation

Apr 2023 – July2023

The conducted interviews were evaluated, and the results will be presented in the frame of a public event. Based on the results we will also draw further design suggestions that can be used later in designing social VR platforms.

Literature review

Nov 2022 – Dec 2022

Semi-structured interviews

Evaluation