(PS11-C73) Virtual Reality Intervention Improves Autistic Participants' eye Contact During Police Interaction

Background: One fifth of autistic individuals will be questioned by a police officer before age 21 (Rava et al., 2016). Autistic adults have described being misinterpreted as the most significant challenge in police interactions, with specific concerns that atypical eye contact could be misjudged as indicative of deceit (Salerno-Ferraro & Schuller, 2020). Police interactions are unique situations that introduce a high level of stress and are important to prepare for. Virtual reality (VR) is a useful preparation tool that provides the opportunity to practice interactions in a safe, simulated environment. Research suggests it may be easier for autistic individuals to engage in eye contact with people in VR compared to real world situations (Rubo & Gamer, 2021). Thus, practicing eye contact skills in VR may act as a form of graded exposure and help acclimate autistic folks to demonstrate the same skill in real life. To reduce fear and improve police interaction skills, we integrated CBT components into a VR intervention. Here, we compare the efficacy of an immersive VR-based (Floreo) versus a video-modeling (BeSAFE) intervention using police officer ratings of participants’ eye contact.

Methods: Forty-seven autistic individuals were randomly assigned to Floreo or BeSAFE. Participants completed a live interaction assessment with a novel study staff member presenting as an officer at pre-intervention and with a police or uniformed security officer at post-intervention. Police and staff completed ratings of observed participant eye contact during simulated police interactions before and after the intervention. Scores were compared pre- and post-intervention.

Results: Linear mixed effects models were used to assess the interactive effect of condition and time on outcome measures, after controlling for age, sex, and IQ (with a random effect of participant ID to account for repeated measurement). Planned Tukey-corrected comparisons of estimated marginal means (EMM) were used to examine the directionality of effects within the larger model. Results revealed that participants in the Floreo condition were rated by police officers as having better eye contact after intervention (estimate: 0.27, SE: 0.13, z = 1.99, p = 0.05), with no significant pre-/post- intervention differences or trends found for participants in the BeSAFE condition.

Conclusions: VR has potential to be a comfortable and motivating platform for autistic individuals to safely practice police interactions, particularly when it incorporates with CBT strategies. Our results showed that a VR-based intervention was effective at improving participants’ eye contact during police interactions.