To determine to what extent Virtual Reality can positively influence the outcome of compassion-based interventions, a group of Spanish researchers divided 16 university students into two groups that received compassion training. Half received traditional training, while the remainder’s training was augmented with VR. Participants in the VR group were able to observe themselves as a third person via a participant-facing eye-level camera, and to reach out and “touch” themselves, by touching the outstretched hands of an interviewer (an experimental method known as The Machine to Be Another).
Following the training, both groups showed “increased positive qualities towards self/others, decreased negative qualities toward self, and increased awareness and attention to mental events and bodily sensations.” However, the use of VR-bolstered mental imagery was associated with a greater frequency of self-care behaviors, like nutrition and hydration, exercise, regular sleep, and active self-compassion, after a period of two weeks.
The study, by its methodology and limitations, opens the door for several avenues of future research. For example, the participants were primarily female (75%), all university students, and limited in number. ...
See the full story here: https://www.psypost.org/2020/04/out-of-body-virtual-reality-experiences-can-increase-self-compassion-56346