A female virtual body made men’s and women’s responses to abuse more alike
In a simulated domestic violence scenario, participants of both genders showed similar physical, behavioral and reported reactions.
Editorial illustration — not from the study.
Researchers placed 40 participants—20 male and 20 female—in a female virtual body and exposed them to a virtual domestic violence scenario involving escalating verbal and physical aggression. They measured physical arousal, reaction times and participants’ reported experiences, including empathy and their sense of presence in the virtual setting.
Across the main measures, the two groups responded equivalently. Men more often reported guilt and submission, while women tended to recognize the start of violence during verbal escalation rather than only after physical aggression. The findings support further study of virtual embodiment as a standardized tool for programs addressing gender-based violence.
Similar reactions in virtual abuse
The male and female participants showed comparable changes in electrodermal activity, a measure of physical arousal, across the different phases of the scenario. Their reaction times for reaching a reported distress threshold were statistically equivalent, and their ratings of presence and embodiment—the sense of being located in and inhabiting the virtual body—did not meaningfully differ.
In post-experience verbal reports, 30 of 33 binary indicators, or 91%, fell within the study’s equivalence range. The three that did not were interpretive: male participants more often reported guilt and submission, while female participants tended to identify the onset of violence during earlier verbal escalation. Within each group, arousal was associated with different reported experiences: submission among men, and discomfort and perceived violation among women.
Why shared responses matter
Any virtual-reality program intended to address gender-based violence would need to know whether people of different genders can engage with the same experience in comparable ways. These results suggest that embodying participants in a female virtual body can align many of their physical, behavioral and self-reported responses to simulated domestic violence, supporting its potential use as a standardized tool for prevention and rehabilitation programs.
The study does not show that the virtual experience prevents violence or changes behavior outside the simulation. It establishes cross-gender similarity in responses to this particular scenario, which is a condition for evaluating such programs further.
Evidence and caveats
The study included 40 participants, split evenly between male and female groups, and used a controlled virtual-reality scenario with a female avatar and escalating verbal and physical aggression. Researchers assessed physical arousal, reaction time, self-reported experience and verbal reports, using a statistical test designed to evaluate whether group responses were equivalent.
The evidence comes from a simulated, single-session experience rather than real-world domestic violence or a test of a prevention or rehabilitation program. The sample was small, and the abstract does not describe its broader demographic makeup. The results also included three non-equivalent interpretive indicators, so the groups were not identical in every aspect of how they understood the scenario.
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Computers in Human Behavior Reports · 2026 · DOI: 10.1016/j.chbr.2026.101432
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