Testing Socio-Perceptual Equigenesis with Biophilic Interventions: A Virtual Reality Eye-Tracking Study Across Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status

Inequity in access to urban green spaces perpetuates marked disparities in psychological well-being in cities. The present study evaluates whether micro-scale biophilic interventions in virtual environments act as a socio-perceptual equalizer (Environmental Equigenesis Hypothesis) and modulate attention through oculomotor patterns of soft fascination (Attention Restoration Theory). Within this framework, 60 Hz eye-tracking integrated into Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) was used to capture implicit attentional dynamics objectively. Framed within a mixed methods project registered on the Open Science Framework (OSF) after data collection and before any inferential analysis, and given the density of the data obtained, this manuscript reports exclusively the quantitative block focused on oculomotor and psychometric triangulation, reserving the qualitative analysis for a subsequent report. A sample of 75 participants exposed to 360° virtual tours evaluated low-, medium-, and high-socioeconomic-status (SES) neighborhoods under Original and Enhanced conditions. Eye-tracking revealed that the biophilic design did not alter the total volume of fixations but significantly reduced the average fixation duration, a pattern compatible with the attentional coupling of soft fascination. In parallel, subjective increases in positive affect, liking, esthetic evaluation, and relaxation were observed, while perceived stress did not change significantly overall. No significant differences in esthetic evaluation between neighborhoods remained after the intervention, and the areas-of-interest (AOIs) metrics showed a different allocation of gaze across neighborhoods, partly because the interventions applied were not the same in each one. Eye-tracking complemented the self-report data, although the main equigenesis findings rest on the psychometric measures.Keywords: virtual reality, eye-tracking, biophilic design, attention restoration theory, environmental equigenesis, socioeconomic status