| dc.description | Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. | en |
| dc.description.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, eta2p
=0.10) and affirmative nods (group difference = 4.36 [0.21, 8.58], p = 0.040, eta2p
= 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, eta2p
= 0.05) and expectancy (group difference = 2.28 [0.45, 4.12], p = 0.015, eta2p
= 0.05) but warm facial expressions did not increase treatment credibility (group difference = 0.64 [− 0.75, 2.02], p = 0.363, eta2p
= 0.01) or expectancy (group difference = 0.36 [− 1.48, 2.20], p = 0.700, eta2p
= 0.001). There were no significant interactions between head nods and facial expressions in the occurrence of therapeutic alliance (p = 0.403, eta2p
= 0.01), credibility (p = 0.072, eta2p
= 0.03), or expectancy (p = 0.275, eta2p
= 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. | en |
