As the VR environment facilitated non-mediated and realistic emotional and behavioral responses, our results demonstrate VR’s high potential to increase the ecological validity of scientific findings (video abstract: ). Consequently, putting laboratory-based models to the test under realistic conditions shows that they may not unrestrictedly predict realistic behavior. Taking the specific behavioral responses into account, the obtained FAAs could not be reconciled with well-known FAA models. Despite these affective and behavioral differences, the groups could not be distinguished based on the FAAs for the greater part of the cave exploration. Participants in the negative condition exhibited a broad spectrum of realistic fear behavior and reported intense negative affect as opposed to participants in the neutral condition. To our knowledge, this is the first study to simultaneously capture complex behavior and associated electrophysiological correlates under highly immersive conditions. Electrophysiological correlates of fear-related approach and avoidance tendencies, i.e., frontal alpha asymmetries (FAA) were evaluated. To promote real-life behavior, we built a physical replica of the cave, providing haptic sensations. To investigate authentic fear responses from a holistic perspective, participants explored either a negative or a neutral VR cave. The immersive, multidimensional character of virtual reality (VR) enables realistic behavioral responses, overcoming aforementioned limitations. The latter transform these evolutionary adaptions into artificial responses, like keystrokes. However, for the sake of experimental control, fear is mainly investigated under rather artificial laboratory conditions.
3Institute of Psychology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany.2Differential Psychology & Personality Research, Institute of Psychology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany.1Experimental Psychology I, Institute of Psychology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany.
Joanna Kisker 1* †, Leon Lange 2 †, Kira Flinkenflügel 3, Michael Kaup 3, Nils Labersweiler 3, Falk Tetenborg 3, Paula Ott 3, Christopher Gundler 4, Thomas Gruber 1, Roman Osinsky 2 and Benjamin Schöne 1