The Mere Belief of Social Interaction Improves Learning Sandra Y. Okita (yuudra@stanford.edu) School of Education , Stanford University 485 Lasuen Mall Stanford CA 94305-3096 USA Jeremy Bailenson (bailenson@stanford.edu) Department of Communication, Stanford Universiy 450 Serra Mall Stanford, CA 94305-2050 Daniel L. Schwartz (danls@stanford.edu) School of Education , Stanford University 485 Lasuen Mall Stanford CA 94305-3096 USA Abstract patterns differ depending on whether they believe they are interacting with an agent or an avatar (Bailenson, Thirty-five adult participants tested the hypothesis that one’s Blascovich, Beal & Loomis, 2003; Blascovich et. al., 2002; mere belief in having a social interaction with someone Hoyt, Blascovich & Swinth, 2003). For example, people improves learning and understanding. Participants studied a will respect the virtual “space” of a human representation if passage on the body’s mechanism for causing fever. They they believe it is an avatar. then entered a virtual reality environment with an embodied Our particular interest in virtual reality is that it provides a agent on the other side of a table. The participant read unique way to examine the effects of social interaction on scripted questions relevant to the fever passage, and the agent learning. Social interaction is a natural and powerful way to gave scripted responses. In the Avatar condition, participants learn.