ArticleScientific reports2018
Offenders become the victim in virtual reality: impact of changing perspective in domestic violence.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The use of virtual reality in forensic-correctional psychiatric settings: A systematic review.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2026Pooled it
- Extended reality (XR) in psychosocial and forensic interventions for child and adolescent sexual abuse: a systematic review of current applications and future directions.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Visual perspective and body ownership modulate vicarious pain and touch: A systematic review.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Pooled it
- Can Virtual Reality be Used for the Prevention of Peer Sexual Harassment in Adolescence? First Evaluation of the Virtual-PRO Program.Psychosocial intervention · 2024Trial
- Towards naturalistic social neuroscience: A multi-level framework integrating real-world phenotyping, neurobiology, and computational mechanisms.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- Can Neuroscience Inform Peacebuilding?The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- Differential emotional responses and relief mechanisms across social exclusion roles.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Blame through my eyes: How first-person perspective shapes social attention and attribution in harmful interactions - a comparative eye tracking study.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2026Article
- REVISE Virtual Reality Intervention to Prevent Sexual Harassment in Heterosexual Couples: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Anticipation and prevention of real risks of virtual environments in psychiatry.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Review
- An Affordances-Based Approach and Scoping Review of Virtual Reality Applications in Forensic Behavioral and Mental Health Assessment and Treatment.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2025Article
- Self-dialogue with age-congruent versus age-incongruent avatars in immersive virtual reality.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Virtual embodiment increases male sensitivity to catcalling experiences.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- The DID-guide: A guide to developing digital mental health interventions.Internet interventions · 2025Review
- Using Virtual Reality in Sexual Aggression Alcohol Administration Research: Opportunities and Challenges.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2025Review
- Alter egos alter engagement: perspective-taking can improve disclosure quantity and depth to AI chatbots in promoting mental wellbeing.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- Virtual Reality Training to Reduce Workplace Violence in Healthcare.Issues in mental health nursing · 2025Article
- Expanding the empirical study of virtual reality beyond empathy to compassion, moral reasoning, and moral foundations.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Ethical Challenges of Virtual Reality Technology Interventions for the Vulnerabilities of Patients With Chronic Pain: Exploration of Technician Responsibility.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The role of empathy and perspective-taking in preventing aggressive behaviors has been highlighted in several theoretical models. In this study, we used immersive virtual reality to induce a full body ownership illusion that allows offenders to be in the body of a victim of domestic abuse. A group of male domestic violence offenders and a control group without a history of violence experienced a virtual scene of abuse in first-person perspective. During the virtual encounter, the participants' real bodies were replaced with a life-sized virtual female body that moved synchronously with their own real movements. Participants' emotion recognition skills were assessed before and after the virtual experience. Our results revealed that offenders have a significantly lower ability to recognize fear in female faces compared to controls, with a bias towards classifying fearful faces as happy. After being embodied in a female victim, offenders improved their ability to recognize fearful female faces and reduced their bias towards recognizing fearful faces as happy. For the first time, we demonstrate that changing the perspective of an aggressive population through immersive virtual reality can modify socio-perceptual processes such as emotion recognition, thought to underlie this specific form of aggressive behaviors.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.