Graduation Year

2017

Date of Submission

12-2016

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Reader 1

Gabriel Cook

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2016 Alexander J Brenner

Abstract

This study proposes a series of 3 experiments to explore how different types of staging, pictures versus virtual reality, impacts potential buyers’ likelihood of wanting to visit a home. Moreover, this study seeks to address how the type of market, hot versus cold, and type of home, luxury versus non-luxury, connects with staging and its impact on wanting to visit a home. In Experiment 1, participants will view 10 total homes, 5 randomly selected with staged pictures first followed by the remaining 5 with virtual reality, either within the hot or cold market. If VR increases presence, then people should be more likely to want to visit a house especially in a hot market given that there is a high demand for a constrained supply. Experiment 2 addressed the contrast effect limitation given that virtual reality staging always came after the pictures of staging within Experiment 1. Experiment 2 should replicate the results of Experiment 1 by removing the contrast effect. Finally, Experiment 3 will explore the impact of type of home, luxury versus non-luxury, and type of staging on wanting to visit a home. Researchers are expected to find that participants who viewed properties in virtual reality are more likely to want to visit the home compared to those that saw staged images because of increased presence, which will make them feel more connected to the home compared to viewing staged pictures. Ultimately, this study is important because it aims to identify the utility of VR in home sales.

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