VR Turns 30: Stanford’s 5 Key Insights into VR’s Avatars, Full-Body Tracking, and More
Original Author: 庭庭迴旋踢 Edited by: VIVERSE Team
From ceiling-mounted headsets and spinning chairs to sleek VR headsets and wireless hand tracking, the evolution of VR has spanned three decades. While many think of VR as a way to play and entertain, VR is also used to research human interaction by psychologists and social scientists.
Recently, Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) published a systematic literature review in Nature Human Behaviour, offering a summary of the key findings from 30 years of experiments on VR. In this panel, academic and industry experts selected five crucial findings regarding virtual reality that hold true across various cultural contexts.
As new VR headsets packed to the brim with fancy gadgets and gizmos are released every year, questions start to arise: Are these technical improvements pushing VR forward fast enough? Do these behavioral insights from 30 years ago still apply? What needs rethinking?
5 Key Insights After 30 Years of VR Research.
Obviously, VR is commonly associated with fun gaming experiences, but it actually has been a valuable tool in psychological and behavioral research. In 1992, PRESENCE, a full academic journal dedicated to VR, was launched. At the time, researchers were already focused on how to measure “presence”, address VR motion sickness, and how VR can be used to overcome phobias.
However, recent statistics show that more than half of all VR-related experimental studies have been published since 2018. This shows that as VR devices improve, studies have also expanded. From the early foundational studies on “presence” and sensory perception, research has moved towards more complex issues regarding avatars, social behavior, education, and more.
With that in mind, let’s explore the five key findings that a Stanford-led research team has identified from three decades of study.
1. More Immersion Isn’t Always Better.
In VR, the feeling of presence, also known as immersion, means the user truly feels that they are where VR takes them. This is widely known as VR’s most compelling trait, as it is what sets VR apart from traditional media. But studies have actually shown that presence isn’t always beneficial. The key is how and where it’s applied.
Presence offers the greatest benefits in fields like training and therapy. From simulated surgeries and military drills to airport reconstructions for treating flight phobia, high presence in VR has been shown to boost engagement and memory, reduce psychological resistance, and help people confront difficult real-life scenarios.
For example, HTC VIVE and V‑Armed have partnered with law‑enforcement agencies to build immersive VR scenarios that allow officers to rehearse de‑escalation and tactical decision‑making. In pain management, VR can redirect attention or create out-of-body illusions to reduce perceived pain.
However, in communication or entertainment, the results vary. While popular VR titles like VRChat and Gorilla Tag have spiked in popularity, social VR has yet to become mainstream.
Researchers suggest that this may be because presence demands most, if not all, of your attention, while social entertainment is mostly enjoyed casually while doing other tasks.
So yes, VR delivers strong presence, but using it effectively requires matching it to the right context. Whether you’re designing a VR experience, think about whether your scenario truly benefits from full immersion or if it would lead to distraction and fatigue.
2. Avatars Don’t Just Shape Looks, They Influence Behavior.
In VR, we normally start by “putting on” an avatar, similar to how we put on clothes in the morning. Research has shown that these appearances aren’t just cosmetic—they subtly shape our attitudes, behaviors, and decision-making.
This phenomenon is known as the Proteus Effect. First proposed by Jeremy Bailenson and Nick Yee, it suggests that people adjust behavior in VR based on their avatar’s appearance. For example, users that use a taller avatar may feel more confident in negotiations while elderly or weaker-looking avatars may act more cautiously.
But it’s not just about appearance. When your virtual limbs mirror your real movements and feel like part of your body, this creates a sense of “body ownership.” Research shows this sensation isn’t just visual but affects memory and self-perception (even without haptic feedback).
Over time, these subtle influences accumulate, impacting social behavior, emotional regulation, and even bias formation. Researchers warn that even if a VR experiment isn’t specifically studying avatars, default character designs and movement systems may still unconsciously influence outcomes.
Avatar choices aren’t just stylistic choices, but actually gradually shape how we see ourselves and interact with others.
3. VR Education Isn’t Suitable for All Learning.
Using VR applications for education isn’t new, spanning flight simulations, medical training, museum tours, and language learning. But VR doesn’t work in every single aspect of education. When it comes to abstract ideas or complex logic, immersive environments can backfire.
VR excels at tasks involving hands-on practice. Things that practice procedural learning like rehearsing surgical sequences or operating factory machinery in VR help users retain information and transfer skills to real‑world contexts. Simulating fire emergencies with VR for firefighting has been an amazing part of VR education, thanks to FLAIM Systems.
However, teaching abstract concepts like theories, mathematical formulas, or historical narratives can lead to cognitive overload. Too much sensory input diverts mental energy toward processing the environment instead of understanding content. This is especially challenging for younger learners or those with less-developed learning strategies.
Interestingly, many failed VR education cases come from simply porting 2D materials into VR—like playing videos in a virtual classroom or having avatars read out loud. It may seem modern but often performs worse than traditional methods.
4. Full-Body Tracking Revolutionizes VR, but There’s a Catch.
Full-body tracking is absolutely amazing. Every head turn, wave, step, and even eye movement is brought into VR in real time. When it comes to immersion, there honestly isn’t anything better (for now).
For researchers, full-body tracking is a goldmine of user behavior. Every limb or tracking point is a metric that can be analyzed. For example, hand motion paths, gaze shifts, or posture stability can indicate attention levels, stress, or even predict sensory sensitivities or ADHD. In multi-user experiences, physical cues help assess social rhythms, interpersonal space, and nonverbal communication.
But are there privacy concerns? Studies show that just five minutes of head and hand motion data can identify individuals with over 90% accuracy.
So, while VR with full-body tracking is just pure fun, we must also recognize that it may be a privacy risk.
5. People Tend to Misjudge Distance in VR.
VR takes some time getting used to. When navigating through virtual reality, users tend to underestimate how far things are when performing everyday actions like grabbing objects, walking, and jumping.
Though it seems minor, distance distortion can degrade the whole interaction quality of VR. It reduces the accuracy of precision movements like throwing or grabbing and affects the timing and comfort when interacting with other users.
Surprisingly, this issue persists even in passthrough mode, where users view the real world via headset cameras. Just because something ‘looks real’ doesn’t mean we are accurately perceiving it.
These issues are still being studied, but possible causes include limited field of view, weak depth cues, compensating movements due to headset weight, or even how shadows are rendered.
Developers are actively working on fixes like using depth-sensing cameras, adjusting avatar eye height, or tweaking ground shadows and field of view.
What’s Next for VR?
These five findings won’t solve every challenge in VR, but they offer widely agreed-upon insights for how the world interacts with virtual reality. After thirty years, VR isn’t just a type of entertainment, but a lens for observing human behavior, placing users in new roles and environments. Whether we use this technology to expand our understanding of the real world is up to us.
