A Virtual Reality Couples' Intervention for Sexual Victimization Prevention: a Gender-swapping Transformative Approach

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of REVISE (REalidad Virtual Inmersiva y SExualidad), an immersive virtual reality (IVR) intervention designed to promote empathy and reduce sexual harassment behaviors in heterosexual cisgender men.

The main questions that this study aims to answer are as follows.

Does experiencing gender swapping in IVR increase empathy towards survivors of sexual harassment?

Does the intervention modify attitudes toward gender roles and sexual harassment?

Researchers will compare the three experimental groups to evaluate the effects of IVR:

1. Identity Exchange Group with Exposure to Sexual Harassment: Participants embodied their partner's identity in a VR harassment scenario.
2. Identity Exchange Group without Harassment Exposure: Participants embodied their partner's identity in a neutral VR scenario.
3. Third-person Observer Group: Participants observe a harassment scenario in VR from their own perspective.

Participants will:

1. Attend one virtual reality session in a laboratory setting.
2. Undergo pre- and post-intervention assessments and a three-month follow-up.
3. Complete self-report questionnaires and physiological measures (eye tracking and pupillometry).
4. Participate in semi-structured interviews about their experiences. This study aims to explore how immersive VR embodiment can be used as a tool for gender violence prevention by fostering perspective-taking and behavioral change.

Conditions

• Sexual Harassment
• Gender Based Violence
• Empathy
• Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

REVISE - Virtual Reality Gender-Swap with Harassment Exposure

Participants will embody a virtual avatar of their female partner in a sexual harassment scenario using full-body tracking, and identity exchange in virtual reality (VR). The goal is to assess whether experiencing harassment from a first-person perspective increases empathy and decreases tolerance toward sexual harassment.

BEHAVIORAL

REVISE - Virtual Reality Gender-Swap without Harassment

Participants will embody a virtual avatar of their female partner in a neutral social interaction scenario using VR-based identity exchange. This condition controls for the effect of perspective-taking alone, without exposure to harassment, to evaluate its impact on empathy and gender attitudes.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• European Social Fund

  collaborator OTHER

• Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

39 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2027-03-30

Primary Completion

2027-03-30

Completion

2027-03-30