Chapter 8 Social Influence within Immersive Virtual Environments (original) (raw)

[Social psychology is] an attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual imagined, or implied presence of others. Gordon Allport, 1954 [1] There is nothing so practical as a good theory. Kurt Lewin, 1951 [2] Nearly all social psychologists subscribe to Allport's defmition [1]. This broad definition has taken hold because it captures the universe of social influence processes, making clear that we can influence each other implicitly as well as explicitly. We do not need to experience the actual physical presence of others to influence them or for them to influence us. This long-held and well-validated assumption in social psychology provides a firm basis for assuming that social influence can occur within digital virtual and immersive virtual environments, whether the "others" present are computer agents or human avatars. Social psychologists also subscribe to Lewin's dictum [2] regarding the value of theory for applications. Social psychologists realize that explicit theoretical models of social behavior, rather than the implicit notions we all carry as human beings, serve best in the development of practical applications involving social influence. All of us (including social psychologists) find it difficult to escape the tenets of our implicit, common sense theories of social behavior. And, sometimes our intuitions prove true. However, applications such as virtual social environments will generally prove more successful if based on sound explicated theory. Although social psychologists do not have a monopoly on understanding and facilitating social influence within digital immersive virtual environments (IVEs),