Featuring an all-star team with @joomi.bsky.social, Joshua Baldwin, @lindsayhahn.bsky.social, and Glenna Read!

✅ However, the selfish decisions dissipate when participants are made aware of the moral dilemma involved in selecting the pieces of wood.

✅ Participants are not *intentionally* harming others when making ego-centered moral decisions. Read article here; DM if behind a paywall: tinyurl.com/273yzukz

✅ Yes, the virtual pit is scary/arousing (if you haven't tried it yet, highly recommend!)

✅ The arousal reduces the extent to which participants think about the fact that self-serving decisions (i.e., taking more wood) can harm others.

✅ This leads to more selfish decisions in the moral dilemma.

a wider plank ensures safety for themselves but harms the next participant, a narrower plank helps the next participant but would be very scary/dangerous for themselves. Through physiological assessments and self-reported surveys, we find that:

We introduce a moral dilemma in the virtual pit simulation by asking participants to divide 20 pieces of wood between themselves and the next participant who is waiting for the study to build the plank that would be used to cross the pit:

We explore this egoism-altruism dilemma in the well-known virtual reality simulation: the virtual pit. The task involves participants crossing a 30-feet deep virtual pit over a wooden plank and is often used in VR demos to demonstrate the experience of "being there" in #VR.

📣New publication in the Journal of Communication @journal-of-comm.bsky.social.

#VirtualReality now allows us to take a deeper look at 'in-the-moment' moral decision-making (e.g., trolley dilemma). But what if the threat in the moral context includes your own safety?

We have partnered with Danny Pimentel and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry out on the West Coast to work on #wildfire preparedness. We also have advisors from The Weather Channel, U of South Florida, National Wildfire Coordinating Group, and Keep Oregon Green to provide expert guidance.

For this project, Marshall Shepherd (@drshepherd2013.bsky.social), Kyle Johnsen, and I will be working with the National Hurricane Center and the Broward County Public Library System (36 branches) to really become embedded into the #community with actionable plans for #hurricane #preparedness.

Things were a bit uncertain at times, but...
I am elated that this grant finally received the Notice of Award today and excited to continue our work with @noaa.gov on community-level #disaster preparedness!!

Spent the past few days on the Hill with colleagues at @emoryuniversity.bsky.social to advocate for children’s health research and NIH support!

We shared “Weather the Storm” #VR during the Congressional briefing and held a demo 😎

#communication #research #children #health #metaverse #translational

Thank you, @drshepherd2013.bsky.social for the opportunity to join the show! Hope you get to listen in during your next long commute 😎

linktr.ee/WeatherGeeks

Super excited to share this podcast with you!
In this episode of #WeatherGeeks, I had a wonderful chat with host Jen Carfagno about Weather the Storm, our #VR integrated training package for communicating #hurricane and storm surge risks for #disaster #preparedness.

Brains, games, and VR frames: How UGA researchers are rewriting the rules of learning - UGA Research News

UGA Research write up of some of the cutting edge research on education and training taking place on campus - featuring our recent @noaa.gov project where I got to get into a little more detail about the motivations behind the #VR hurricane experience.
research.uga.edu/news/brains-...

We are working with the legal office to also upload the application to the Meta store for easier downloads.

P.S. Eek, live interviews are always nerve wracking 😱

www.foxweather.com/watch/fmc-mb...

Recent Fox Weather coverage on our “Weather the Storm” virtual reality application.

If you’re interested in trying it out and have access to a Meta Quest headset, please visit www.ugavr.com/weatherthest....

Weather the Storm was collaboratively produced by CACHE at @universityofga.bsky.social, Clemson University, South Carolina Sea Grant, and Georgia Sea Grant. Please share widely to anyone who may be interested!

Registration link provided here: www.noaa.gov/regional-col...

#Hurricane season 2025 is almost here! 🌧️ ☔️
Join @ugavr.bsky.social CACHE and our project partners at the @noaa.gov 2025 Hurricane Awareness Webinars Series to learn about "Weather the Storm," a training package for hurricanes and storm surge events that combines #VR w/ PPT, videos, handouts.

CACHE receives Presidents’ Award of Distinction from Georgia CTSA - Grady A team from the Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems is the recipient of the Presidents’ Award of Distinction from Georgia CTSA.

Every day, I am blessed to be able to work with these brilliant people who are the best of the best at what they do, and also genuinely care about CACHE's vision and goal to make the world a better place, one project at a time ❤️
grady.uga.edu/news/cache-r...

Although I often represent @ugavr.bsky.social, I cannot emphasize enough how much teamwork goes into all we do. It is a collaborative effort among the Colleges of Journalism & Mass Communication, Engineering, Public Health, and the colleges of all of our faculty affiliates, students, and staff.

We are proud to serve @universityofga.bsky.social University of Georgia's land and sea grant missions and humbled to be recognized for our research impact in the state of Georgia.

We are thrilled to be awarded the President's Award of Distinction from the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance (CTSA), recognizing our efforts to engage community members and orgs, helping to build capacity and establish strong partnerships that evolve into long-term friendships.

Community-based work has been at the core of our vision at @ugavr.bsky.social Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems(CACHE). Even when we work with cutting-edge tech, we have strived to direct our findings back to communities so that they may benefit from critical scientific advancements.

Includes fireside chat with @sunjooahn.bsky.social and VR demos following the talk!

VR hurricane storm surge experience could save lives along Georgia’s coast. Here’s how. A first-of-its-kind virtual reality experience is now available to educate coastal residents about the dangers of hurricane storm surge and how to prepare during evacuations.

www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/environ...

Learning the dangers of storm surges in virtual reality: coastal leaders’ attitudes toward VR as a risk communication tool Educating coastal residents on the dangers of storm surge is one of the core missions of coastal community leaders. Virtual reality (VR) can help communicate risks by simulating storm surge events ...

Preliminary findings from semi-structured interviews on integrating the VR experience in coastal communities: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Weather the Storm: A Life-Saving VR Simulation from Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems. — UGA x CACHE Weather the Storm is an immersive virtual reality experience designed by UGA's CACHE with support from NOAA to help coastal residents understand the true dangers of hurricanes.

The VR experience and education materials can be downloaded here: www.ugavr.com/weatherthest...

Storm surge VR from NOAA shows hurricane danger to teach safety NOAA introduced a new VR simulation called "Weather the Storm," designed to immerse people in the experience of a hurricane's storm surge.

Described as "..incredibly realistic and well-done..."
The VR experience and supplementary education materials are available to anyone who has access to a Meta Quest headset.

winknews.com/2025/03/21/s...

Chief Meteorologist @mattdevittweather.bsky.social of WINK News reviews "Weather the Storm," a life-saving #VR simulation we developed and tested at the @ugavr.bsky.social, in collab with @noaa.gov, Clemson University, the National Hurricane Center, Georgia Sea Grant, and South Carolina Sea Grant.

Our study on IEEEVR2020 was one of the craziest but exciting field studies we were able to pull together miraculously during the early days of COVID. Thanks to @drlauralevy.bsky.social for being such an amazing partner-in-crime 😎 Let's do it again soon!
URL to the paper & findings in Laura's post!