Emotion and Stress Reactivity in Disadvantaged or Affluent Virtual Neighborhoods

Neighborhood disadvantage is an independent predictor of health that is thought to operate, in part, through acute impacts on emotion and stress reactivity. Nevertheless, no studies have measured the acute effect of neighborhood contexts on emotion and stress reactivity. To address these issues, we used virtual reality to develop an experimental model of neighborhood disadvantage and affluence. This project assesses the validity of the virtual neighborhoods by examining participant observations and investigates whether or not neighborhood disadvantage elicits greater stress reactivity and different emotions.

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