Self-observation of a virtual body-double engaged in social interaction reduces persecutory thoughts

Geoffrey Gorisse,Daniel Freeman,Ramon Oliva,Mel Slater,Alejandro Beacco,Domna Banakou,Gizem Senel

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-03373-x

Abstract

The proportion of the population who experience persecutory thoughts is 10–15%. People then engage in safety-seeking behaviours, typically avoiding social interactions, which prevents disconfirmatory experiences and hence paranoia persists. Here we show that persecutory thoughts can be reduced if prior to engaging in social interaction in VR participants first see their virtual body-double doing so. Thirty non-clinical participants were recruited to take part in a study, where they were embodied in a virtual body that closely resembled themselves, and asked to interact with members of a crowd. In the Random condition (n = 15) they observed their body-double wandering around but not engaging with the crowd. In the Targeted condition the body-double correctly interacted with members of the crowd. The Green Paranoid Thoughts Scale was measured 1 week before and 1 week after the exposure and decreased only for those in the Targeted condition. The results suggest that the observation of the body-double correctly carrying out a social interaction task in VR may lead to anxiety-reducing mental rehearsal for interaction thus overcoming safety behaviours. The results also extend knowledge of the effects of vicarious agency, suggesting that identification with the actions of body-double can influence subsequent psychological state.

Highlights

The proportion of the population who experience persecutory thoughts is 10–15%
The main finding from this experiment is that observation of a body-double engaging in social interaction (Targeted condition) is associated with a reduction in the Green et al Paranoid Thoughts Scale (GPTS) scores 1 week later, relative to initial scores taken 1 week before the exposure
When the body-double is seen to walk amongst groups of virtual people but never approaching them (Random condition), there is no change in the GPTS score relative to the baseline

Summary

Introduction

The proportion of the population who experience persecutory thoughts is 10–15%. People engage in safety-seeking behaviours, typically avoiding social interactions, which prevents disconfirmatory experiences and paranoia persists. We show that persecutory thoughts can be reduced if prior to engaging in social interaction in VR participants first see their virtual body-double doing so. The results suggest that the observation of the body-double correctly carrying out a social interaction task in VR may lead to anxiety-reducing mental rehearsal for interaction overcoming safety behaviours. Safety behaviours are arguably the key maintenance factor in paranoia It has been known for a long time that people with a tendency to persecutory delusions in their interaction with others exhibit similar thoughts in relation to interactions with human characters in virtual reality (VR)[6–9]. We introduce a new technique where participants first see a double of themselves engaging in social interaction prior to attempting that interaction, providing a salient demonstration of overcoming safety behaviours, leading to a reduction in subsequent persecutory thoughts. Galvan Debarba et al.[20] showed body ownership over a virtual body seen from third person perspective in VR

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