Virtual reality in primary prevention: bullying in the classroom.

Introduction: Working on the development of pupil's cognitiveemotional skills has been shown to be a key factor for the success of anti-bullying interventions in primary and secondary school. Virtual Reality (VR) technologies, which have been claimed to be a powerful "empathy machine", could have great potential in this regard. Objectives: To examine whether immersion on a first-person VR experience representing a situation of school bullying impacts empathy and attitudes towards victims in secondary school students. Methods: Students participated in a co-creation task for creating the VR scenes, which were pre-tested with a different sample of pupils. Self-reported measures of the experience and attitudes towards bullying were collected, together with psychophysiological measures during the viewing. Results: Preliminary results suggest that the immersive experience elicits realistic responses in participants, enhances emotional reactions towards the situation, and might contribute to more prosocial attitudes. Conclusions: The results encourage further research exploring the specific aspects of VR interventions in school bullying prevention programs and their impact on behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]