Trial reportScientific reports2023
A randomised controlled test of emotional attributes of a virtual coach within a virtual reality (VR) mental health treatment.
Trial report in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- A randomised controlled test in virtual reality of the effects on paranoid thoughts of virtual humans' facial animation and expression.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- User Experience and Socioemotional Evaluation of Virtual Therapist Character Types in a Simulated Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy: Quantitative Study.JMIR XR and spatial computing · 2026Article
- Virtual Humans in Virtual Reality Mental Health Research: Systematic Review.JMIR XR and spatial computing · 2025Review
- Developing an Automated Virtual Reality Therapy for Improving Positive Self-Beliefs and Psychological Well-Being (Phoenix VR Self-Confidence Therapy): Tutorial.JMIR serious games · 2024Article
- Extended Reality for Mental Health Evaluation: Scoping Review.JMIR serious games · 2024Article
- Developing psychological treatments for psychosis.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
We set out to test whether positive non-verbal behaviours of a virtual coach can enhance people's engagement in automated virtual reality therapy. 120 individuals scoring highly for fear of heights participated. In a two-by-two factor, between-groups, randomised design, participants met a virtual coach that varied in warmth of facial expression (with/without) and affirmative nods (with/without). The virtual coach provided a consultation about treating fear of heights. Participants rated the therapeutic alliance, treatment credibility, and treatment expectancy. Both warm facial expressions (group difference = 7.44 [3.25, 11.62], p = 0.001, [Formula: see text]=0.10) and affirmative nods (group difference = 4.36 [0.21, 8.58], p = 0.040, [Formula: see text] = 0.04) by the virtual coach independently increased therapeutic alliance. Affirmative nods increased the treatment credibility (group difference = 1.76 [0.34, 3.11], p = 0.015, [Formula: see text] = 0.05) and expectancy (group difference = 2.28 [0.45, 4.12], p = 0.015, [Formula: see text] = 0.05) but warm facial expressions did not increase treatment credibility (group difference = 0.64 [- 0.75, 2.02], p = 0.363, [Formula: see text] = 0.01) or expectancy (group difference = 0.36 [- 1.48, 2.20], p = 0.700, [Formula: see text] = 0.001). There were no significant interactions between head nods and facial expressions in the occurrence of therapeutic alliance (p = 0.403, [Formula: see text] = 0.01), credibility (p = 0.072, [Formula: see text] = 0.03), or expectancy (p = 0.275, [Formula: see text] = 0.01). Our results demonstrate that in the development of automated VR therapies there is likely to be therapeutic value in detailed consideration of the animations of virtual coaches.
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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.