Exploring aspects of obedience in VR-mediated communication

Social psychology has been shedding light for decades to the complexities of interpersonal communication, whilst other fields, such as Computer-mediated Communication, showcase how mediums of communication affect interlocutors to re-negotiate symbolic interactionism. Current developments in Virtual Reality (VR), with the emergence of Social VR among others, compel for a close examination of VR-mediated communication and the probable effects it might have on communicative processes. In this study we conducted an explorative, between-groups comparative experiment, with 51 participants, to establish how susceptible they are to techniques of persuasion and authority when those are filtered through a synthetic environment. As this was an uncharted area of inquiry, our only hypothesis was in reference to level of realness, based on which, face-to-face interactions posed greater probability of participant compliance. Our main findings refute this hypothesis, since the second group (VR) was substantially more susceptible to persuasion techniques.