Matteo Lisi

Currently I am investigating how the embodiment of virtuous characters in virtual reality can affect prosocial behavior and civic engagement. Previously, I investigated the role of the participants' gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity in shaping behavioral and psychophysiological reactions  to social and intimate touch in immersive virtual environments, combining the full body ownership illusion and the vicarious perception of touch to investigate intimate and social touch in a controlled experimental setting.
In my past activity I also investigated how people regulated interpersonal distance toward virtual agents and specifically how: a) sexual orientation and sexual prejudice affect comfort-distance judgments toward male and female avatars; b) how dispositional and situation factors influenced the adherence to the physical distancing measure during the first COVID-19 outbreak.
More broadly, I am interested in combining ecological paradigms, motion tracking and physiological recordings to ultimately develop evidence-based protocols for attitudinal and behavioral change.