The influence of sexual orientation on nonverbal interactions

Background: Immersive virtual reality (IVR) offers a way to recreate sensory environments that can duplicate reality and elicit veridical experiences. Aims: Here using IVR we investigated the behaviour of men and women dealing with virtual characters to measure the quality of different types of nonverbal interactions (i.e., touch and interpersonal distance). Methods/Results Study1: In the first study, heterosexual, gay and lesbian participants observed their virtual body while receiving touches on different parts (including taboo zones) from a male or a female avatar. Results showed that touches on different areas elicited lifelike sensations that were dependent upon the biological sex and the sexual orientation of the participants. Moreover, skin conductance responses showed that touches on the intimate zones (breast and genitalia) elicited the highest reactivity compared to other zones. Methods/Results Study2: In the second study, heterosexual and non-heterosexual men and women were asked to provide comfort-distance judgements in relation to approaching male or female virtual avatars. Results showed that same-sex comfort distance was smaller for non-heterosexual compared to heterosexual participants. Moreover, the larger distance toward the male avatar kept by heterosexual men was also associated with the implicit prejudice (measured with an implicit association test) toward gay men. Conclusion: The results from our studies suggest that sexual orientation, along with the most investigated role of sex, plays a fundamental influence in regulating touch and interpersonal distance. Importantly, IVR seems to represent a unique opportunity to explore the psychophysiology of sexuality in the regulation of nonverbal interactions.