Nature vs. nurture, environment vs. genetics. These contentions have been front and center in philosophical debates around identity and beliefs for centuries. So, it seems appropriate to ask the question of how our environments affect our beliefs.
Parts of this equation have been extensively explored. The influences of material deprivation and social context — elements of “environment” — are well-studied, yet not all-encompassing in their explanatory value. They dominate the narrative around belief development, but what about a more literal interpretation of the environment? What about our physical surroundings?
In our study, made possible with financial support from the 51 AMS program, we set out to test the hypothesis that the physical environment has an effect on the development of philosophical beliefs. We utilize cutting-edge VR simulation technology and fully immersive VR experiences to simulate a wide range of environments, ranging from ancient Greece to space. By putting participants in otherwise impossible environments, we can measure the effects of short-term exposure to specific environments on how people approach a particular philosophical question.
One of the major motivating factors for this research endeavor is the overview effect. More specifically, when astronauts return from space, they have a tendency to be less nationalistic and more likely to adopt conservationist positions. Exploring phenomena such as this with any rigor was previously impossible due to the financial constraints of sending people to space, but with new VR technology that generates images indistinguishable from those produced by the human eye, we can expose normal people to the environments theorized to trigger these types of psychological effects.
Additionally, this phenomenon is largely associated with the personality metric of religiosity and a large portion of the people interviewed so far self-identified as Christians. As such, our investigation has had the additional benefit of focusing on people whom the literature suggests are predisposed to having their beliefs influenced by nonvirtual environments, providing a strong basis for comparison.
While research is ongoing, our preliminary analysis has yielded promising signs, suggesting that we can invoke statistically significant changes in the beliefs of participants. This is especially true concerning the overview effect and our ability to trigger it by placing people into virtual reality environments. This experience has also been an enlightening one for me personally. Not only has it convinced me of the great potential for VR in research of psychological experimentation moving forward, but it also demonstrates how mind-opening experiences are no longer locked behind unnavigable financial barriers.
This project would not have been possible without the support of the 51 AMS program, and I am very grateful to everyone who has helped make this experience a reality.