Attribution Clarity Beyond Immersion: Intentionality, Humor, and Bystander Intervention in Virtual Reality Microaggressions

Immersive virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used to promote ethical engagement and bystander intervention in response to social harms, yet the psychological mechanisms through which immersive experiences motivate intervention remain unclear. The present study examines how psychological presence, humor-based storytelling, perceived intentionality, perceived harm, and perceived efficacy jointly shape bystanders’ intention to intervene in a VR-based microaggression scenario. Participants experienced a humor-infused immersive VR interaction depicting micro-aggressive behaviors, preceded by an experimental framing of the aggressor’s intentionality as unintentional, ambiguous, or intentional. Across analyses, intentionality framing strongly influenced perceived harm, perceived efficacy, and intervention intention. Correlational and regression results revealed that perceived intentionality was the most robust predictor of intention to intervene, whereas psychological presence did not exert a direct effect when interpretive and motivational variables were considered simultaneously. Perceived humor was associated with reduced harm appraisal and emerged as a consistent suppressor of intervention intention, even when discriminatory intent was explicit. Condition-specific regression analyses further showed that intentionality predicted intervention only when intent was ambiguous, psychological presence contributed to intervention readiness only under ambiguity, and humor suppressed intervention whenever it was salient. Together, these findings indicate that bystander intervention in immersive environments is driven primarily by interpretive judgments of intent rather than by immersion alone. The results underscore the importance of narrative framing and attributional clarity in the design of VR-based ethics training, diversity education, and public-facing simulations.