VR Research Ethics
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Introduction to research ethics for VR, from undergraduate lectures at the School of Simulation & Visualisation at The Glasgow School of Art. Includes a basic introduction to research ethics.
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VR Research Ethics
- 1. Ethical & Professional Issues Week 9 – Research Ethics CC-BY-NC Daniel Livingstone, Daisy Abbott The Glasgow School of Art, 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode
- 2. The Milgram Obedience Test The Milgram Shock Experiment is a good example to highlight a range of potential ethical issues for research… • Deception • Consent & withdrawal of consent • Causing harm (including distress) in participants • Repeating these experiments under the same circumstances would be very difficult today – do you think this would be possible? What adaptations might be required?
- 3. The Virtual Milgram Obedience Test • Slater et al. (2006) created a VR version of the obedience test, where participants would apply shocks to a female avatar inside virtual reality • Purpose was to determine if human participants would respond to extreme social situation as if it was real even though it clearly was not • Finding was that subjective, physiological and behavioural responses of participants tended to be similar to what would be expected if the situation was real • Opens possibility that experimentation in VR might be suitable alternative for some experiments that have insurmountable ethical challenges otherwise BUT • Does conducting the experiment in VR address all of the ethical issues adequately? Slater, M. et al. 2006. A Virtual Reprise of the Stanley Milgram Obedience Experiments. PLOS ONE 1(1), p. e39. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000039.
- 4. Research Ethics • The key ethical imperatives: 1. Do no harm 2. Do good In applying these principles there may be conflicts and challenges. E.g. researching a new medical cure may involve a degree of risk to participants – but this is balanced against the potential benefit to participants and others But level of risk needs to be reasonable and risk needs minimised: • Have good reason to believe intervention will not cause harm and may do good, incl. initial testing not on human participants While we may not be working with such large risks, these are still guiding principles
- 5. Research Ethics at GSA Researchers (including students conducting research) expected to be attentive to ethical issues with their work • Issues can be varied and complex • Ethical issues may require that amendments are made to the research plans • Good ethical design balances ethical principles for the most overall good Major issues • Participants • The Research process • Analysis and publication • Ethical implications of the study of human tissue and the human body
- 6. The Participants • Your experimental subjects • You • The academic community • People affected by your outputs (e.g. software and hardware products, artworks, papers, etc.) 6
- 7. Experiment/survey subjects • Rights • Right not to participate • Right to withdraw • Right to give informed consent • Right to anonymity • Right to confidentiality • Law • UK Data Protection Act (2018) • Declare uses of data & only use for the purposes declared • Protect data
- 8. Right to not Participate, Right to Withdraw • People do not have to participate • Don’t attempt to force them • They can change their minds • Not their problem, it is yours! • Be prepared for subject attrition • Can opt out of parts of your research
- 9. Right to give Informed consent • Must be fully aware of nature of research and involvement • Purpose, reason and benefits of the research • Who is undertaking the research and who is sponsoring it • What it will involve • Financial remuneration – expenses/rewards • How the data will be used, analysed and published • Children and individuals unable to give consent? • Parental consent required, but also need to consider design of experiment to allow children to stop if they wish to, and to ensure they understand this
- 10. Right to Anonymity & Confidentiality • Participants can demand that their identity and location can be protected • They can also demand that you keep information and data relating to them confidential • Don’t leave it lying around the lab in full view • Don’t discuss it with anyone except your supervisor • Best solution is to anonymise data at point of collection – though this is not always possible
- 11. Your Key Responsibilities • No unnecessary intrusion • Behave with integrity • Follow professional codes of conduct • No plagiarism • Confidentiality • Neutrality in your judgment • Understanding your ‘client’ needs
- 12. Additional resources • On Canvas • GSA Research Ethics Code of Practice 2016 • GSA PGT Ethics Policy • The UG Ethics Policy is under development! • Form 1 Ethical Assessment • Form 2 Advanced Ethical Assessment
- 13. VR Research Ethics Conducting research with VR does not change fundamental issues, but there are some specific concerns and issues • Physical & Sensory • Cause harm through use of equipment, motion sickness, light-sensitivity, dizziness • Users’ lack of spatial awareness, trip hazards, cables • Risks need minimised & plan for support in case of e.g. motion sickness • Behavioural Responses • Possible to use approaches that promote user ‘embodiment’ in VR, which increases feeling of being in the VR simulation (c.f. Petkova & Ehrsson, 2008) • Can react to things happening to virtual body as if own • Implications?
- 14. VR Embodiment & Research Perception of embodiment in VR can be utilised to conduct experiments that might be difficult/impossible otherwise • e.g. put a user into another body for an experiment and test whether this affects behaviour in the VR simulation or after completing the VR test • Banakou, D. et al. (2016) put white participants into a black body in a simple VR test • In the VR simulation, users could see their virtual reflection • Post test demonstrated a sustained reduction in implicit racial bias (as measured by widely used implicit bias test) • https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00601/full • Does this also mean that negative impacts would be amplified in VR embodied research?
- 15. Benefits of VR There is a wide range of evidence from different contexts of the possible beneficial uses and applications of VR (c.f. Slater & Sanchez-Vives, 2016) • Improved understanding of the most effective & least harmful ways of exploiting these benefits is of clear potential benefit to society • As such, there is a good reason and justification for continuing VR research • However, each experiment still requires individual ethical assessment for potential harms and benefits • E.g. In some contexts the experiments may be designed in such a way as to have no potential benefits – is this worth the potential harm?
- 16. VR vs Real World VR allows us to conduct experiments that are not possible or very difficult to perform in real life • Because of ethical problems • Because of practical problems However, VR does not cover all senses, and users generally still know that they are in a simulated environment Accordingly, caution required when making conclusions extending observed behaviour in VR to expected behaviour in real world settings • Grijseels, D. 2021. Your brain isn’t the same in virtual reality as it is in the real world. Available at: https://massivesci.com/articles/virtual-reality-vr-real-world-limitations- touch-smell-visual/ • Slater et al. 2020. The Ethics of Realism in Virtual and Augmented Reality. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frvir.2020.00001/full
- 17. A code of conduct Madary and Metzinger (2016) present a code of conduct for both consumer and research use of VR • These are presented in the following slides • Do the VR ethical code of conduct guidelines differ significantly from normal ethical research guidelines??? • Do no harm • Do good
- 20. IEEE XR Ethics White Paper IEEE is currently engaged in an exercise to develop a white paper on ethics for XR (extended reality – AR & VR) • Report due to be completed mid 2021 • Opportunities to get involved? • Current documents and information provide overview of the range of issues that are currently under consideration for possible inclusion within the code: https://voicesofvr.com/976-xr-ethics-white-paper-invitation-from-launch-of-the-ieee- global-initiative-of-the-ethics-of-extended-reality/