A new study from Stanford's
School of Humanities and Sciences has found that AR experiences significantly
affect people's behavior in the real world, even after they've taken the
headset off. Using 218 participants and a pair of AR goggles, researchers conducted
three experiments. The first showed a realistic 3D person called Chris sitting
on a real chair in the room. Participants had to complete anagram tasks while
Chris watched, and as with the presence of a real person in the room, his
presence meant they found hard puzzles more difficult than without 'someone'
watching them.
The second experiment looked at
whether participants would sit in the chair previously occupied by Chris. Even
though he was no longer there, none of the participants still wearing the AR
headset sat in that chair. Without the headset, 72% still avoided Chris's chair
and sat in the one next to it instead. In the final experiment, researchers
paired a person wearing an AR headset with a person without. The two had a
conversation, after which the people wearing goggles said they'd felt less of a
connection with their partner.
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