What does it feel like to be in prison? For most people, the answer can only come from the imagination, but it is difficult to truly understand the psychological burden of isolation and social stigma without experiencing them first-hand.
This reflection inspired the study “Between the bars: Virtual reality and physical prison simulations link to reduced prejudice against incarcerated people”, published in Computers in Human Behavior by researchers from MIBTEC, the Mind and Behavior Technological Center, at the Department of Psychology of the University of Milano-Bicocca: Marco Marinucci, Paolo Riva, Teresa Traversa and Maria Elena Magrin.
«Prison is one of the most extreme forms of institutional exclusion,» explains Marco Marinucci, lecturer at the University of Milano-Bicocca and Senior Research Associate at the University of East Anglia, UK. «If we want to talk seriously about rehabilitation and reintegration, we must also understand how society views incarcerated people. Reducing prejudice is not only a matter of individual attitudes, but also concerns the conditions that can facilitate or hinder a return to social life: access to housing, employment and social relationships.»
The research investigated whether immersive experiences, both virtual and physical, could help people better understand certain psychological aspects of detention and reduce prejudice towards incarcerated people. The aim was not to “experience prison” in a realistic or complete sense, which would be impossible in just a few minutes, but to assess whether a brief, controlled experience inside a simulated cell could activate one of the most significant psychological aspects of detention: the feeling of being excluded from society.
In the first study, 138 participants wore a virtual reality headset and were immersed for several minutes either in a virtual prison cell or in a studio apartment. The comparison allowed the researchers to distinguish the specific psychological impact of a space designed as a prison cell from that of a neutral, non-custodial environment.
In the second study, 93 participants entered Extrema Ratio, a physical installation hosted at BiM Bicocca to mark the tenth anniversary of the University of Milano-Bicocca’s Prison Education Centre. The project, promoted by Caritas Ambrosiana in collaboration with the University, provided an opportunity for dialogue between research, third mission and social engagement, with the involvement of tutors and incarcerated students from Milano-Bicocca’s Prison Education Centre. The installation reproduced an eight-square-metre cell from Milan’s San Vittore prison, with authentic furnishings, and had been built in wood by incarcerated people in the carpentry workshop at Bollate prison. Within this setting, researchers from the Department of Psychology were able to study, under controlled conditions, the psychological effects of a brief immersive experience in a simulated prison cell. Participants entered the cell alone and remained inside for several minutes.
The results of the two studies converge. Both the virtual reality cell and the physical cell increased participants’ subjective experience of social exclusion. This experience, in turn, was associated with greater empathy towards incarcerated people. In particular, emotional empathy — feeling closer to and more affected by another person’s suffering — was associated with a reduction in prejudice.
An innovative element of the research is the comparison between virtual reality and physical simulation. The physical cell produced more intense responses for some of the variables analysed, but virtual reality showed a broadly similar pattern. This suggests that virtual reality, while not replacing the physical experience, may represent a scalable and controlled tool for awareness-raising, training and research on marginalisation, stigma and social inclusion.
The study highlights that immersive experiences can have not only technological but also social value, helping to reduce the psychological distance between outside observers and highly marginalised groups. The findings indicate that immersive technologies are most promising when they do not merely “show” a condition, but succeed in activating a core psychological experience. Through this approach, space can be created for empathy and a reduction in prejudice.