Experiencing Peer Exclusion in 3D: An Immersive Virtual Environment Study

Peer exclusion is linked to adverse outcomes, including reduced mood and unmet psychological needs. While the 2D Cyberball paradigm is widely used to simulate peer exclusion, its limited ecological validity has raised concerns. Therefore, this study compared the 2D Cyberball paradigm with a newly developed 3D Virtual Reality (VR) paradigm simulating peer exclusion in a classroom conversation.Seventy-six children (aged 8–12) and seventy-four adolescents (aged 13–16) participated in a counterbalanced within-subject design. Participants experienced both paradigms in two separate sessions. Mood and psychological needs were assessed before and after each paradigm. Moderator variables included paradigm features, social support, and previous rejection experiences. Repeated-measures ANOVAs were conducted.Both paradigms led to a decrease in positive mood and psychological needs and an increase in negative mood. However, stronger negative effects emerged after the 2D Cyberball paradigm. The 3D VR paradigm was perceived as more realistic and immersive, and its effects remained consistent across levels of the moderator variables, indicating robustness in responses. Adolescents showed stronger emotional and motivational reactions than children in the 3D VR condition, but not in the 2D Cyberball condition, suggesting greater developmental sensitivity of the immersive simulation.Overall, results confirm that the 3D VR paradigm effectively simulates peer exclusion while offering higher ecological validity than the 2D version. Although the 2D Cyberball paradigm elicited more intense negative effects, the 3D VR paradigm better captured naturalistic and age-related differences in peer exclusion experiences, thereby providing a more developmentally appropriate and ecologically valid research tool.