Webinar Series
Towards a metaverse for social change
June 2025
Extended‑reality spaces are rapidly becoming laboratories for social change, and the GuestXR June 2025 Webinar Series — delivered in partnership with the Frontiers in Virtual Reality Journal — offers an exposition of the latest research advances during June.
Each Thursday we will gather researchers in haptics, neuroscience, AI and social psychology to show how AI agents and immersive embodiment can soften entrenched conflicts, steer crowd dynamics, improve meetings and even reshape life inside the metaverse.
From stepping into an opponent’s virtual body to testing the influence of reinforcement‑learning in simulated protests and using AI agents, the series of webinars includes findings from across the GuestXR European project consortium. Together these four sessions trace a single narrative: how XR technology can unlock empathy, foster collaboration and build a fairer and more inclusive collective future.
Scheduled webinars
Beyond debate: Role-play in Virtual Reality for shifting perspectives and resolving conflict
June 5th, 2025 | 15:00h - 16:00h CEST
How do we move beyond deeply-rooted disagreement when conversation alone falls short? In conflict, people often slip into roles: being the opponent, defender, or accuser, which shape how they listen and respond. But what if we could step outside those roles altogether?
This webinar explores how Virtual Reality can enable role-playing and perspective-shifting as tools for transforming conflict. We will explore how immersive, embodied experiences can create space for reflection, soften rigid positions, and open new ways of understanding.
As a case study, we will present a VR experiment where participants debated the polarizing topic of climate change: first from their own viewpoint, then from their opponent’s virtual body. The results show not just shifts in attitude, but moments of self-recognition that are hard to reach through traditional dialogue. Together, we will discuss how stepping into another’s role (metaphorically and literally) can reshape how we approach disagreement in education, mediation, and beyond.
Esen K. Tutüncü, PhD student, Event Lab, University of Barcelona
Born in Istanbul in 1996, she is an academic and researcher specializing in Virtual and Extended Reality. She earned her BA from Bahçeşehir University with a thesis combining theoretical research and interactive installation. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology and Virtual Reality at the Event Lab in Barcelona, where her research explores virtual social spaces and remote collaboration. Alongside her doctoral studies, she teaches part-time at the UPC CITM, focusing on Interactive Applications and Creative Coding.
Protest dynamics in XR: How Reinforcement Learning Models modify behaviour
June 12th, 2025 | 15:00h - 16:00h CEST
Can an AI agent based on reinforcement learning succeed in shaping human behaviour within a VR protest scenario? We investigated this idea by realistically recreating a well-known recent protest, the Women’s Strikes in Poland. Master student Andrea Robinson (NTNU) trained an AI agent through experiments where participants were placed in the protest VR environment developed by Professor Ana Sanchez Laws (UiT) in collaboration with Bernhard Spanlang (Virtual Bodyworks / Kiin). Participants were divided into three different groups: 1. randomly selected its actions, 2. probability decision threshold for random vs selected actions according to its optimal policy, or 3. actions based on optimal policy.
Ana Luisa Sánchez Laws, Professor, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway
Ana Luisa Sanchez Laws is Professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Together with researcher Kamilla Bergsnev, she co-leads the Perceptra lab, which specializes in physiological measurements and XR.
Andrea Robinson, Master Student, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway
Andrea Robinson is master student at the Faculty of Information Technology and Electronics, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She is the main researcher in the project presented in this webinar.
An uninvited Guest – can AI, haptics and neuroscience improve virtual reality meetings?
June 19th, 2025 | 15:00h - 16:00h CEST
Can AI become a facilitator in our virtual encounters? What happens when neuroscience, haptics, and machine learning converge in the shared space of a digital meeting? This webinar delves into the GuestXR project’s work and experiences of improving group dynamics in virtual environments through AI-driven agents that address conflicto and unlocks interaction in extended reality environments.
In a round table format, key researchers of the GuestXR project will discuss the role of integrating AI agents, haptic feedback and neurophysiological data, combined with an immersive VR design to detect tension, foster empathy, and enhance group behavior for harmonious meetings.
Mel Slater, Investigator and Co-director of the Event Lab, University of Barcelona
Beatrice de Gelder, Professor and Director of the Brain and Emotion Laboratory, University of Maastricht
Andrzej Nowak, Professor, University of Warsaw
Andrzej Nowak is a professor of psychology at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, where he directs the Center for Complex Systems at the Institute for Social Studies. He is also a professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University. His primary focus is social psychology and new technology, computer simulations of psychological and social processes, AI, social influence, and self-structure. His current research includes AI, processes on social media, social impact, human-robot synchronization, culture, and conflict. He publishes in social and psychological as well as interdisciplinary journals.
Doron Friedman, Professor and Head of the Advanced Reality Lab, Reichman University
Anatole Lécuyer, Inria Research Director, Inria centre at Rennes University
