Listening to the soothing words of your own virtual reality “avatar” promotes mental wellbeing, scientists believe.
Receiving therapy in a virtual world from a computer-generated image of oneself reduces self-criticism and boosts self-compassion, researchers from University College London found.
They inserted study participants into a virtual world and challenged them to soothe a crying child. The participants were then replayed their own performances through the eyes of the child.
The researchers found that afterwards the subjects felt soothed, safer and more content.
“People fear compassion, but being kind to oneself feeds directly into wellbeing,” Caroline Falconer, the lead author of the study, said. Being compassionate to oneself was “synonymous with being compassionate to other people”, she said.
“Being kind to oneself is an alien concept