Our Mission

Since its founding in 2003, researchers at VHIL have sought to better understand the psychological and behavioral effects of Virtual Reality (VR) and, more recently, Augmented Reality (AR). Almost two decades later, we are in the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution. VR is finally widely available for consumers, and every day we are seeing new innovations. It is critical, now more than ever, that we seek answers to these important questions: What psychological processes operate when people use VR and AR? How does this medium fundamentally transform people and society? What happens when anyone can have a perfect experience at the touch of a button? And how can we actively seek to create and consume VR that enhances instead of detracts from the real world around us?

Featured News

Causes for ‘Zoom fatigue’ and their simple fixes, Stanford News

Prof. Jeremy Bailenson’s research shows that popular video chat platforms have design flaws that exhaust the human mind and body.

Is VR the Future of Corporate Training?, Harvard Business Review

Over the past few years, the cost to deploy VR has plummeted, and the technology has expanded into more general use at Fortune 500 corporations, where employees working in industries such as retail, logistics, and customer service are practicing in VR headsets to get better at their jobs.

Just How Real Is Virtual Reality?, NPR Weekend Edition

NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with virtual reality researcher Jeremy Bailenson about his new book Experience on Demand. And she also tries some VR herself.

VHIL research examines how augmented reality affects people’s behavior, Stanford News

Researchers found that after people had an experience in augmented reality (AR) – simulated by wearing goggles that layer computer-generated content onto real-world environments – their interactions in their physical world changed as well, even with the AR device removed.

Why Zoom Meetings Can Exhaust Us, The Wall Street Journal

Prof. Jeremy Bailenson discusses why many of us are getting mentally exhausted from videoconferencing—whether for a work meeting, an online dance class, or a virtual happy hour.