Effects of social virtual reality versus video-mediated communication on collaboration willingness

Social virtual reality (SVR) is emerging as a strong alternative to video-mediated communication (VMC) for remote communication. In the current research, we focus on the willingness to collaborate in SVR compared to VMC systems and on the effect of adding a chat option to these systems, based on social presence and anthropomorphism theories and findings. Our 120 research participants used a ride-sharing simulation based on the repeated prisoner’s dilemma paradigm. Four groups of 30 took part in a 2-by-2 between-participants experiment designed to examine two independent variables: system (SVR or VMC) and the option of chat (Chat or No Chat). The results demonstrated that collaboration rates were higher with the chat option than without it, especially for the SVR system, in line with the anthropomorphism paradigm. Hence, the need for a mix of real-life and virtual features in the design of new, virtual worlds in which humans are communicating and will be communicating much more in the future was theoretically demonstrated in the current research and requires additional investigation. In addition, the practical implication is that the use of a chat option in SVR systems for ride-sharing and other similar social situations should be encouraged.