First Big Red Button VR Study Demo | Button Pressing Behavior in Virtual Reality

This video presents a demonstration of the inaugural Big Red Button Institute (BRB) virtual reality study investigating volitional press-initiation behavior under conditions of maximal autonomy and minimal task demand. Participants are immersed in a controlled virtual environment containing a single interactive stimulus: a large red button of considerable presence. A standardized audio instruction track guides participants through a period of open-ended interaction, during which pressing behavior may or may not occur. Both outcomes are methodologically equivalent. The paradigm is designed to isolate the button-press from confounding environmental variables, allowing us to observe the phenomenology of approach, hesitation, and, where applicable, contact. The button blinks at calibrated intervals (not to pressure, but to remain available). This recording serves as a prototype for stimulus timing, instruction cadence, and the general atmosphere of button-adjacency. Non-pressing is fully supported as a valid experimental outcome. The Big Red Button Institute is a transdisciplinary research collective advancing the study of human-button interaction through computational, ethnographic, phenomenological, and artistic inquiry. Learn more: https://bigredbutton.institute