--- title: "What the Google VR DEI study actually found: CHI 2024" description: "An honest read of the peer-reviewed CHI 2024 study of VR DEI training at Google: what it measured, how small the sample was, and why the debrief matters." canonical: https://peopletechrevolution.com/news/what-the-google-vr-study-found --- [News](https://peopletechrevolution.com/news) · August 2026 # What the Google VR study actually found A peer-reviewed CHI 2024 paper on VR DEI training at Google is encouraging. The most useful line in it is not the headline number, though: it is what one tester said once the group discussion was taken away. ## Bias at work, seen from both sides Each scenario puts a trainee inside a bias incident: a colleague whose expertise is doubted because of how they look, a new starter left out of the group’s shared references. The trainee plays it once as each person. Google DEI volunteers built the scenarios from 2021 to 2023, and PTR co-designed them with Leonie Sanderson leading. [The CHI 2024 paper](https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3637128) is by Elie Bursztein, Karla Brown and Patrick Gage Kelley of Google, with Leonie Sanderson. ### What the testing measured Development testing, then Google’s first live cohort. Development testing. Seven QA sessions and 20 volunteer testers; 11 filled out the anonymous survey, and 10 of those 11 said the scenarios felt real. The first live cohort. Google ran its first cohort in September 2023: 32 invited, 26 took the training, and seven returned a follow-up survey. A satisfying experience. All seven who responded called it a satisfying or very satisfying experience, a 4.7 out of 5 average. ## Why the authors kept the debrief When testers were asked how important the post-VR group discussion was, 9 of 11 rated it useful or very useful. One put it more bluntly than any statistic: "Without the discussion component, [this training] doesn't have any more value than past [styles of] DEI training." The authors took that seriously. Their own gloss is careful: this feedback "supports the hypothesis that having a post session is critical to the success of VR DEI training." They allocated 25 minutes to the debrief in every session that followed. ## The debrief is part of the training Every PTR session runs in a small group, with a facilitator and a structured debrief after the headset comes off: the part the paper’s authors call critical to VR DEI training. [How a facilitated session runs](https://peopletechrevolution.com/training/vr-training-and-roleplay). ### What the authors want to improve The open questions the paper raises. Each tile opens the PTR page that takes it further. [Hardware issues. A headset's weight, glasses worn underneath, reported dizziness, and headsets that stay inaccessible to some users.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/learn/xr/what-is-virtual-reality)[Scaling costs. Hardware cost, remote tech support and training enough facilitators to run sessions at scale.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/learn/how-a-first-build-gets-paid-for)[Fidelity and quality. The paper says higher fidelity "may restrict the trainings to only the highest-end, and also most expensive, headsets."](https://peopletechrevolution.com/learn/choosing-the-right-technology) [Scenario depth. Testers wanted more agency and longer, more complex storylines. The paper raises AI-driven characters as one answer, then qualifies it: unproven, and needing strong guardrails.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/learn/ai/ai-training-roleplay)[Novelty. The authors' own words: "a variable we couldn’t control for is how much this positive feedback is due to the novelty effect."](https://peopletechrevolution.com/learn/does-vr-training-work) ## What this means if you're considering VR training The study followed one team at one company, with sample sizes in the tens, reporting feedback about a single session. Participants rated the discussion afterwards highly in the study. The authors treated it as essential and built 25 minutes of it into every session. Ask any VR training provider, us included, what happens in the room once the headset comes off. See [our summary of the paper](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/research-evidence/vr-dei-training-google-chi-2024), [the case study this training became](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/google-vr-dei-training), or [how PTR facilitates VR training](https://peopletechrevolution.com/training/vr-training-and-roleplay). Want to talk through what this evidence means for your own program? [Open the contact form](https://peopletechrevolution.com/news/what-the-google-vr-study-found#contact) Ask our CEO Simon Lowe’s Digital Twin a question ## Related PTR work The case study, the delivery approach and the wider evidence this reading connects to. [Google VR DEI training. The case study this training became, told in full.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/case-studies/google-vr-dei-training)[Immersive training and roleplay. How PTR facilitates VR training, debrief included.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/training/vr-training-and-roleplay)[XR overview. Virtual, augmented and mixed reality builds, and the headsets they run on.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/xr)[How VR training can boost DEI efforts. The practice case for VR in DEI training.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/news/vr-training-dei)[Collaborate remotely with VR. How the same medium changes distributed teams.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/news/collaborate-remotely-with-vr)[Research and evidence. Every peer-reviewed study PTR's work appears in.](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/research-evidence) ## Sources The Google CHI paper, with links to PTR's summary and the paper PDF. ### Leveraging Virtual Reality to Enhance Diversity and Inclusion training at Google CHI 2024 · Extended Abstracts, CHI EA '24 · 11-16 May 2024, Honolulu Bursztein, E., Brown, K., Sanderson, L., and Kelley, P. G. (2024). The peer-reviewed paper this article is a close reading of. [Read our summary →](https://peopletechrevolution.com/work/research-evidence/vr-dei-training-google-chi-2024) · [Read the paper (PDF) →](https://peopletechrevolution.com/uploads/docs/people-tech-revolution-google-vr-inclusion-training-chi-2024.pdf) [Download the Google research paper PDF](https://peopletechrevolution.com/uploads/docs/people-tech-revolution-google-vr-inclusion-training-chi-2024.pdf)