Witnessing Workplace Bullying in VR in the Context of Construction Safety: Comparing Preparatory Approaches for Social Orientation

Imagine you are stepping into a video game, but instead of fighting dragons, you are learning how to stay safe on a construction site. For a long time, safety training has been like reading a dry instruction manual or watching a boring lecture: you sit there, take notes, and hope you remember the rules when a real accident happens. But human brains are tricky; we often ignore rules when our friends are doing it, or when a boss is yelling at us to work faster. This is where Virtual Reality (VR) comes in. Think of VR as a "time machine" that lets you step inside a dangerous situation without actually getting hurt. You can see a ladder slip or a beam fall, and your brain feels like it's really happening.

However, there's a catch. Safety isn't just about knowing where the loose bricks are; it's about how you feel around your coworkers. If everyone else is ignoring the rules, you might feel pressure to do the same. This paper explores a new idea: before you even put on the VR headset, what if we gave you a special "mental warm-up"? Imagine getting ready for a big game not just by stretching your legs, but by talking about teamwork and how to handle pressure from the coach. The researchers wanted to see if giving workers different types of mental prep—like asking them to think about their feelings (Reflective Priming) or showing them a video about how peer pressure works (Instructional Framing)—would change how they react when they see bullying or unsafe behavior in the VR world. They were curious if these "warm-ups" could turn a bystander into a hero who speaks up, or if they would just make people feel more confused.

The Experiment: Setting the Stage

The researchers, based at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, set up a virtual construction site using a Meta Quest 3 headset. They invited 68 participants (mostly university students) to play a role called "Jackie." The story was simple but intense: during a lunch break, a supervisor publicly yelled at a coworker named "Allen" for working too slowly. Later, the supervisor encouraged Allen to break safety rules to save time, and unfortunately, Allen got hit by a falling rock. The participants watched this unfold as observers.

The twist was in how the participants were prepared before they put on the headset. The researchers split the group into three different "training camps":

1. The "Thinker" Camp (Reflective Priming Only): These participants watched a standard safety video about physical dangers. Then, before the VR, they had to answer a bunch of questions about their own safety attitudes. It was like being asked, "Do you think safety is important?" and "How would you feel if a friend was unsafe?" right before the game started. This was designed to make them think deeply about their own values.
2. The "Lecturer" Camp (Instructional Framing Only): These participants watched a special video that explained how social pressure and bullying actually cause accidents. It framed the story as a social problem, not just a physical one. They didn't get the extra questions; they just got the new perspective and then jumped straight into the VR.
3. The "Super-Prep" Camp (Combined): These participants got the special social video and the deep-thinking questions. They got the full package of mental preparation.

What They Found: The "Social Gap" and the Magic of Prep

The researchers had a hunch that these different preparations would change how people reacted to the bullying and the accident. They measured two things: how much the participants' attitudes toward safety changed, and how likely they said they would be to step in and help (or stop others from hurting) in the future.

Here is the big surprise: The preparation didn't work the same way for everyone. It depended entirely on how "real" the virtual world felt to the participant and how close they felt to the victim, Allen.

Think of the VR experience like a campfire. If the fire is bright and warm (high Social Presence), you feel like you are truly sitting there with your friends. If the fire is dim and cold (low Social Presence), you feel like you are just watching a movie on a screen.

The "Low Fire" Scenario:
When the VR felt a bit cold and distant (low social presence) AND the participant didn't feel very close to the victim (low interpersonal closeness), the "Lecturer" and "Super-Prep" camps did something amazing. They acted like a psychological blanket. Because the virtual world wasn't giving them enough social warmth to feel connected, the pre-VR video and questions filled the gap. These participants ended up with much stronger safety attitudes than the "Thinker" camp. The researchers found that when the VR environment felt socially "impoverished," the instructional framing (the video explaining social pressure) was a lifesaver. It told them, "Hey, this is a safety issue, even if it feels distant."

The "High Fire" Scenario:
But when the VR felt super realistic and immersive (high social presence), the differences between the groups started to vanish. If the virtual world felt so real that you felt like you were actually there with Allen, the extra prep videos didn't matter as much. The experience itself was enough to make everyone care.

The Twist: When Being "Too Close" Backfires

There was a second, more complicated finding about how people react when they feel close to the victim. The researchers expected that if you felt close to Allen, you would definitely want to help. But in the "Super-Prep" group (the ones who got both the video and the questions), something weird happened when social presence was high.

Sometimes, having too much preparation made people hesitate. The researchers suggest this might be because when you are close to someone (like a friend) and you are in a high-pressure situation, you might worry about causing a scene or upsetting the boss. The "Super-Prep" group, who had been thinking so hard about the social rules, sometimes got stuck in a loop of over-thinking. They became so worried about maintaining "social harmony" or not making things worse that they were less likely to intervene than the people who just got the simple "Thinker" prep. It's like being so worried about saying the perfect thing to a friend in trouble that you end up saying nothing at all.

The Bottom Line

This study suggests that VR safety training isn't a "one-size-fits-all" solution. It's more like tuning a radio.

• If the VR simulation feels a bit distant or cold, you need to warm it up with a clear explanation of why social pressure matters (Instructional Framing). This helps people connect the dots even when the virtual world feels a bit fake.
• If the VR simulation feels incredibly real and immersive, you don't need as much extra prep; the experience does the heavy lifting.
• However, if you are training people who are very close to each other (like a tight-knit team), you have to be careful. Giving them too many rules or questions might make them over-analyze the situation and freeze up, rather than acting naturally.

The researchers conclude that to make VR training work for workplace bullying, we need to match the "mental warm-up" to the type of virtual world we are building. If the virtual world lacks social warmth, we must provide it through our training materials. But if the world feels real, we need to be careful not to over-complicate things, or we might accidentally turn our brave bystanders into silent observers. The study shows that with the right preparation, VR can be a powerful tool to teach us how to stand up for each other, but only if we understand the delicate balance between how real the game feels and how close we feel to the people in it.