ArticleScientific reports2021
Self-observation of a virtual body-double engaged in social interaction reduces persecutory thoughts.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nonverbal correlates of paranoid ideation - a systematic literature review.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- A randomised controlled test in virtual reality of the effects on paranoid thoughts of virtual humans' facial animation and expression.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- A prospective study of VR-assessed state paranoia and anxiety suggests threat-related developmental pathways in adolescence.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Anticipation and prevention of real risks of virtual environments in psychiatry.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Review
- Effect of a Novel Somatic Avatar Training on Distress Tolerance Among Unhoused Men Recovering from Substance use Disorders: A Pilot Study.Journal of technology in behavioral science · 2025Article
- Virtual Humans in Virtual Reality Mental Health Research: Systematic Review.JMIR XR and spatial computing · 2025Review
- The Role of Virtual Reality in the Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.Current gastroenterology reports · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
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.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.