Breaking the Familiarity Bias: Employing Virtual Reality Environments to Enhance Team Formation and Inclusion

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges: Research indicates that new members (i.e., "newcomers") face significant challenges integrating into existing teams because current team members are more likely to trust and interact with individuals they are familiar with. This familiarity bias hinders team inclusivity and collaboration efficiency. Additionally, new team members are often perceived as less competent than other members, making it difficult for them to be accepted by the existing team.
• Importance: Integrating new members is a critical means for organizations and teams to acquire fresh perspectives, foster innovation, and maintain vitality. Failure to effectively integrate newcomers may reduce team diversity and creativity, limiting the team's potential and long-term viability.
• Research Motivation and Related Work: While prior studies have shown that online communication technologies can enhance inclusivity by mitigating perceived differences among members, few have explored whether these technologies have distinct impacts on newcomers versus existing members. Furthermore, current understanding of how technology moderates relationships and perceptions within teams remains limited.

Solution

• Proposed Methods or Solutions: This study proposes using virtual reality (VR) technology in experiments to investigate whether it can alleviate familiarity bias and foster team closeness by providing immersive environments and customizable virtual avatars.
• Innovations:
  • For the first time, exploring whether VR can enhance inclusivity between newcomers and existing team members by reducing the influence of physical appearance and cultural cues.
  • Introducing new findings on VR's "asymmetric effects" in team formation, where VR impacts relationships between existing members and newcomers differently.
  • Utilizing VR's high immersion and personalized virtual avatars in team experiments to moderate perceived similarity among members.
• Implementation Steps:
  1. Two scenarios were designed for the experiment: "face-to-face discussion" and "virtual reality (VR) environment."
  2. Each group consisted of three members. The first two members completed an ice-breaking discussion, followed by the introduction of a third member (newcomer) to collaboratively complete a "Hidden Profile" task.
  3. After task completion, participants filled out questionnaires to evaluate team closeness and task experience.
  4. Experimental data were analyzed using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods, combining behavioral scales and open-ended questions to draw conclusions.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:
  • Newcomers were more likely to establish closeness with existing team members in VR environments compared to face-to-face scenarios, mediated by "perceived similarity."
  • Existing members' closeness toward newcomers showed no significant differences between VR and face-to-face environments.
  • VR environments did not significantly reduce existing members' familiarity bias toward newcomers.
  • Qualitative analysis revealed the "psychological safety" effect in VR: newcomers were more focused on tasks through immersive VR experiences and less likely to withdraw due to social anxiety.
• Advantages Compared to Existing Solutions:
  • Compared to traditional face-to-face methods, VR significantly enhances newcomers' sense of team integration.
  • Provides an innovative approach to visualizing participant appearances (via virtual avatars), hiding physical or cultural differences, and reducing stereotypes.
• Experimental or Evaluation Results:
  • The average closeness score between newcomers and existing members in VR was significantly higher than in face-to-face settings (3.62 vs. 2.39, p < 0.001).
  • VR increased newcomers' "perceived similarity" with existing team members by abstracting physical appearances, thereby fostering closeness.
  • In face-to-face meetings, existing members tended to rely on pre-existing relationships and were less open to newcomers compared to VR.
• Limitations and Future Directions:
  • Participants were primarily students and employees with higher education backgrounds, lacking diversity. Future studies should expand to cross-cultural and diverse samples.
  • The experiment duration was relatively short. Future research could extend the duration or adopt longitudinal studies to examine long-term changes in team dynamics.
  • This study used only one VR application (Meta Horizon Workrooms). Future research could explore different platforms and their functionalities' impact on team collaboration.
  • There is a lack of in-depth research on how VR moderates more complex tasks (e.g., creative tasks).

Conclusion

This study explored how VR technology can promote team formation and inclusivity, highlighting VR's asymmetric effects in providing psychological safety and enhancing closeness when newcomers integrate into teams. It opens up broad research and practical opportunities for workplace technology applications. However, VR still has room for improvement in reducing existing members' familiarity bias toward newcomers. Future efforts should combine other interventions to optimize team dynamics and cohesion design.