Racial embodiment in virtual environments for facilitating students’ understanding of racism.

Abstract

Virtual technology provides educators a unique opportunity to offer students’ racial embodiment experiences, operating an avatar of a different racialized experience than their own. A few studies using headset-based virtual technology demonstrate such experiences can be beneficial for reducing implicit bias; we extend this line of inquiry for personal computer–based virtual environments (PVEs) which would be ideal for teaching in a distance learning capacity given their relative affordability and accessibility. In two previous pilot studies, we found only minimal support for the positive impact of racial embodiment experiences in PVEs. Here, we conducted a third study using a more tightly controlled experimental design, with higher power, and dependent measures (i.e., Implicit Association Tests) that are less vulnerable to social desirability effects. Overall, our hypotheses were not supported; White participants (N = 170) who operated an Asian or Black avatar did not demonstrate significantly lower implicit bias, higher ethnocultural empathy, or higher awareness of racism compared to those who operated White avatars. Peripheral to the tests of hypotheses, there was preliminary support for our newly developed brief Implicit Association Tests that may be of interest to future researchers. Null findings are discussed in relation to the broader literature on racial embodiment.