Life is made up of experiences that change you, and in virtual reality, we can create experiences that feel real. So if real experiences can change you, and VR experiences can feel like real ones — then virtual reality experiences can change you too. Our research delves into how we can create these experiences, on demand, that will change who we are as people.

Jeremy Bailenson is founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford, and a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment. He designs and studies virtual reality systems that allow physically remote individuals to meet in virtual space, and explores the manner in which these systems change the nature of verbal and nonverbal interaction. In particular, he explores how virtual reality can change the way people think about education, environmental behavior, and health.