“There I was, being virtually groped”: Explore psychological ownership and the framing of sexual harassment in the immersive virtual reality space

Abstract

Users in immersive virtual reality (IVR) spaces are not free from sexual harassment. Guided by psychological ownership theory and select insights from Clair's (1993) framing devices, this study investigates how social media discourses framed sexual harassment in IVR spaces. Based on a discourse analysis of 40 Reddit posts with 6,021 comments between October 2021 to October 2022, three framing devices with different levels of psychological ownerships are identified. They are: 1) Degradation: Less than Sexual Assault; 2) Reification: It's Part of Gaming; and 3) Trivialization: Groped by Some Computer Code. This study concludes that users' sense of psychological ownership can influence how they perceive sexual harassment in the IVR space. The discussion of the study provides insights into understanding users' rights in IVR environments and highlights the need for new technology industry to assemble rules and regulations.