Echoes of Assurance: Virtual Reality for the Study of Perceived Safety in Urban Soundscapes

Previous research has shown that conducting scientific research aimed at studying human behavior in a virtual environment in the context of safety is feasible. However, most applications of this kind are done with a primary focus on the visual aspects of the virtual environment. This study investigates if (a) a visual and auditory recreation of a real-world environment in Virtual Reality (VR) for the study of perceived safety is feasible and (b) if perceived safety can be influenced by modifying the soundscape of the environment. Participants were immersed in a recreation of a street in Helsingborg with two different soundscapes. We demonstrated the feasibility of collecting physiological data, including heart rate variability (HRV) and galvanic skin response (GSR), to measure and monitor the participants' stress levels and correlate them with their perceived safety. Our findings indicate that immersion in a virtual reconstruction of a real-world setting with enough realism can produce useful data to study perceived safety. In addition, we demonstrated the use of VR to investigate the possible impact of different soundscapes on perceived safety, indicating that auditory stimuli can play a critical role in human behavior.