Bullying continues to be a serious concern in schools around the world, affecting millions of young people every year. Traditional anti-bullying programs, while well-intentioned, often struggle to engage older students in meaningful ways. That’s where virtual reality (VR) comes in, with the promise of bringing a deeper, more personal kind of understanding.

What if students could feel what it’s like to be bullied, not just watch it happen from the sidelines or read about it in a handout, but truly experience the emotional weight of it? That’s exactly what some educators and researchers are exploring through the use of VR, and the results are striking.

By immersing users in simulated environments, VR can dramatically reduce psychological distance, the mental gap we feel from events or people who seem distant or abstract to us. According to construal level theory, when something feels psychologically close, we........

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