July 2015 might well be known as the month online infidelity went public. This date coincided with one of the biggest and most revealing hacks in history when the Ashley Madison database was compromised and made available online.
Ashley Madison, a dating website targeted at people already married or in relationships, had more than 36 million subscribers, 86% of whom were men. Just over one year later, and immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are on course to become mainstream. But what happens when online infidelity and virtual reality collide?
Online liaisons
Internet infidelity is not new in itself, with Second Life being one example where it was rife. There is even a BBC documentary about it, Wonderland: Virtual Adultery and Cyberspace Love, and online adulterers have appeared on The Jeremy Kyle Show.
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Above: Jeremy Bailenson from Stanford University summarises some key findings of VR research, including its lasting effects.
What happens in cyberspace does not necessarily stay in cyberspace. The emotions and feelings of intimate contact felt in VR will be carried over into the real world. So if a partner is being “unfaithful” online, the emotional consequences and impact on their existing relationship are clear.
Add to this the prospect for physical contact in immersive VR via sensory devices such as teledildonics – sexual aids that can be controlled remotely by another person – and you have potential relationship dynamite.
Yet another twist in the VR sexual plot is whether the sexual partner is an avatar or an agent (a computer-generated simulation). In their book, Infinite Reality, authors Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson note that people will react equally to avatars or agents based upon their belief that they represent a real person.
However, once it’s known to be only a simulation, they may treat it somewhat differently, almost as if it’s part of the furniture. This might be equated to having an affair with a real person in VR or merely viewing the encounter almost as if one is using an animated sex toy.
Pandora’s box
Research shows that emotion and feelings within a virtual environment are all too real. Add to this the ability to achieve virtual physical perfection in terms of their avatar, and fantasy can quickly become reality.
Working late at the office might no longer be a euphemism for ducking off for an illicit liaison, because with VR one can be physically at the office or at home and still be somewhere else at the same time.
The 2015 movie Creative Control gives an insight into what the future of VR could look like and how it might affect relationships. The main character has a virtual affair which spills over into the real world with predictable consequences.
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Source: The Conversation