“Hey, where are you going all alone?” “Why don’t you give me a nice smile?” Unfortunately, many women and girls know all too well what it means to be victims of verbal harassment. They are familiar with its emotional and psychological impact. And what about men? What would they feel if they were in the place of harassed women?

A group of researchers from the University of Bologna, the University of Messina and the CNR-ISTC (Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies) used virtual reality to allow a sample of young men to embody a female avatar subjected to verbal harassment. This research group published the results of their study in Scientific Reports.

“We used immersive virtual reality technologies to give participants a direct experience of catcalling in an everyday context,” explains Chiara Lucifora, researcher at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Bologna and first author of the study. “The results show that undergoing this experience elicits strong feelings of anger and disgust, closely linked to moral disapproval.”

The study involved 36 young men with an average age of 23, who were immersed in a virtual reality scenario in which they embodied a young woman.  In the first scene, the female avatar was in her bedroom, standing in front of a mirror and getting ready to go to a party. In the second scene, she arrived at a subway station, where several male characters interacted with her.

In half of the cases, the interactions consisted of simple requests, such as “Excuse me, what time is it?” or “Do you know when the subway arrives?” In the other half of the sample, the male characters addressed the woman with harassing remarks, such as “Hey, where are you going all alone?” or “Why don’t you give me a nice smile?”

Disgust and anger were the main emotions reported by participants whose female avatar was subjected to verbal harassment. According to the researchers, this type of reaction reflects the ability to put oneself in the victim’s shoes and indicates moral disapproval of the behaviour experienced.

“Disgust is a key emotion that prompts rejection of behaviours perceived as violent or degrading, while anger can be seen as a drive to change situations perceived as unjust,” Lucifora confirms. “Experiencing these emotions can therefore lead to greater moral sensitivity, making the harmful nature of violent behaviours more evident.”

Only one of the 18 young men who embodied the female avatar targeted by harassment reacted by responding aggressively to the catcalling. Another participant reported that he would have reacted differently had he been in the role of a man, but, since he was embodying a female character, he chose instead to walk away.

Another noteworthy finding concerns fear. The group that experienced verbal harassment reported levels of fear similar to those of participants who did not undergo the catcalling scenario. According to the researchers, this may indicate that simply experiencing the initial situation — a young woman alone, at night, in a subway station — is enough to generate a sense of fear, even among men.

“Taken together, these results show that virtual reality can be an effective tool for increasing emotional sensitivity both in clinical settings and educational contexts,” Lucifora concludes. “In clinical contexts, this technique could be used to enhance empathy and emotional awareness in people who engage in harassment, while in educational settings it could help demonstrate the negative impact of harassment by allowing people to experience first-hand the emotional distress caused by these behaviours.”