How Harassment Affects Self-Perception in Social Virtual Reality

Open Human-Computer Interaction Master Project Thesis Internship No Affiliation

Figure adapted from Tschanter et al., 2025.

Motivation

Social Virtual Reality (SVR) enables users to meet and interact through embodied avatars that are often experienced as extensions of the self (Freeman and Maloney, 2021). This embodiment can strengthen presence and social connection but it also amplifies negative encounters, making SVR particularly vulnerable to harassment (Freeman et al., 2022). Importantly, harassment in SVR is prevalent: survey and interview work repeatedly describes it as widespread on current platforms and a recurring part of users’ everyday SVR experience (Blackwell et al., 2019; Weerasinghe et al., 2025). Recent controlled lab evidence further suggests that harassment is not only perceived as clearly disruptive, but can also reshape avatar-related self-perception (Tschanter et al., 2026). For example, participants reported stronger perceived bodily change and self-attribution, regulated interpersonal distance more strongly when personal space was invaded, and shifted avatar preferences toward anonymity in public contexts. Building on these findings, an important next step is to better understand how SVR applications can better protect users by supporting effective safety mechanisms that preserve both well-being and self-perception.

Goal

The aim of this project is to investigate how negative social interactions in SVR affect self-perception and well-being.

Tasks

• Interviews with SVR users
• Design a controlled SVR interaction scenario
• Study implementation and conduction (lab study or field research)

Prerequisits

• Experience with conducting user studies
• Optional: Experience with Unity
• Optional: Interest in actively exploring SVR environments

Literature

L. Blackwell, N. Ellison, N. Elliott-Deflo, and R. Schwartz, “Harassment in Social Virtual Reality: Challenges for Platform Governance,” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 3, no. CSCW, pp. 1–25, Nov. 2019, doi: 10.1145/3359202.

G. Freeman and D. Maloney, “Body, Avatar, and Me: The Presentation and Perception of Self in Social Virtual Reality,” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 4, no. CSCW3, pp. 1–27, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.1145/3432938.

G. Freeman, S. Zamanifard, D. Maloney, and D. Acena, “Disturbing the Peace: Experiencing and Mitigating Emerging Harassment in Social Virtual Reality,” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 6, no. CSCW1, pp. 1–30, Mar. 2022, doi: 10.1145/3512932.

J. Tschanter, C. Merz, C. Wienrich, and M. E. Latoschik, “How Harassment Shapes Self-Perception and Well-Being in Social VR: Evidence from a Controlled Lab Study,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 2026, to appear.

J. Tschanter, C. Merz, C. Wienrich, and M. E. Latoschik, “Towards Understanding Harassment in Social Virtual Reality: A Study Design on the Impact of Avatar Self-Similarity,” in 2025 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), IEEE, Mar. 2025, pp. 172–177. doi: 10.1109/vrw66409.2025.00043.

M. Weerasinghe, S. Macdonald, C. Fiani, J. O’Hagen, M. Chollet, M. McGill, and M. Khamis, “Beyond Mute and Block: Adoption and Effectiveness of Safety Tools in Social VR, from Ubiquitous Harassment to Social Sculpting,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 3275–3284, May 2025, doi: 10.1109/tvcg.2025.3549860.

Contact Persons at the University Würzburg