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Convenor(s): Liviu Matei (King's College London, United Kingdom); Roberta Piazza (Università di Catania); Mauro Palumbo (University of Genoa, Italy); Antonio Uricchio (University of Bari, Italy); AnnaFausta Scardigno (University of Bari, Italy)
Presentation 3
Learning conflict-resolution using immersive Virtual Reality: a proof-of-concept study
Elisa Cavatorta1, Asmaa Ezzat2, Sarah Mansour2
1: King's College London, United Kingdom; 2: University of Cairo, Egypt
Conflict resolution skills are a civic competency foundational to democratic participation and constructive dialogue, yet rarely taught explicitly in educational settings. This paper presents a proof-of-concept study evaluating an immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) intervention designed to develop perspective-taking skills - the ability to adopt another person's point of view - in adolescents. The intervention is grounded in the pedagogical principle of experiential counterfactual learning: iVR provides a unique environment for experiencing another perspective by embodying the other person.The intervention prioritises accessibility: it is non-invasive, avoids prescribing normative values, and is designed to function effectively in resource-limited educational settings with minimal technological infrastructure. Its modular structure makes it readily scalable across diverse institutional contexts. We evaluate the intervention through an experimental methodology with two samples of adolescents in two settings, one in London and one in Cairo (N_1=70, N_2=269). Results show that a two-session intervention produces measurable gains in perspective-taking, assessed using a novel behavioural measure rather than self-report, and increases participants' subjective confidence in managing real-world interpersonal conflict. We further report on user acceptability, finding the intervention to be well-received across the sample. These findings demonstrate how educational immersive technology, when grounded in robust theory and evaluated rigorously, can promote the development of civic skills. The intervention offers a concrete, low-cost and scalable tool for education institutions to contribute to repairing the fabric of democratic life.
