A virtual reality tour of a residential school with Dr. Iloradanon Efimoff and Dr. Katherine Starzyk

Dr. Katherine Starzyk and Dr. Iloradanon Efimoff created a virtual reality tour of a residential school. They collaborated with Survivors and computer scientists to see if a tour in this manner could change attitudes toward residential schools and reconciliation. Did it work? Well...kind of. But that doesn't mean the study wasn't worth doing! On today's episode we discuss what they learned and how even disappointing results move science and understanding forward. Can a virtual reality residential school, developed with Survivors, improve empathy toward Indigenous people? Conversation article: https://theconversation.com/can-a-virtual-reality-residential-school-developed-with-survivors-improve-empathy-toward-indigenous-people-249996 Open-access paper 'The influence of Survivor stories and a virtual reality representation of a residential school on reconciliation in Canada': https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/social-psychology/articles/10.3389/frsps.2024.1346101/full Open-access paper '“I definitely felt like I was there”: enacting empathy and negotiating a virtual reality Indian Residential School': https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/11771801221117561 Missing Matoaka: https://www.missingmatoaka.ca/ Dr. Iloradanon Efimoff's lab website: https://psychlabs.torontomu.ca/iel/