In general terms, human beings are better at advising other people than themselves. In the psychological field, behavioral scientist Igor Grossmann called it Solomon’s paradox. This term refers to the fact that the biblical king, Solomon, was wise for others, but when it came to making decisions that had an impact on his own position, he did not possess the same ability.
A team of researchers from the Institut d´Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), the University of Barcelona (UB) and Virtual Bodywork, a spin-off of these two institutions and the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), has used virtual reality to observe the effects of talking to oneself as if it were another person.
The results of the study, which have been published in the journal Scientific Reports, show that a conversation with a self in the body of Sigmund Freud contributes to improving mood, more than talking about our problems in a virtual conversation with a pre-established script.
The work was directed by Mel Slater and Solène Neyret, researchers at Virtual Environments in Neurosciences and Technologies (Event Lab); and the psychologist Guillermo Feixas, from the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology and the Institute of Neurosciences of the University of Barcelona (UBNeuro).
Previous studies by the same team have shown that when we adopt a different body in virtual reality, our behavior, attitude and perception of things change. Slater has assured that “it is possible to make people talk to themselves as if they were other people, changing the body to different avatars”.
To test the effects of this body swap, scientists subjected 58 people to the experiment. 29 in the body exchanging the self-conversation condition – first within the body of the participant and then within the virtual body of Sigmund Freud – and another 29 in a condition in which they only spoke with the virtual Freud character as a script, in this case, the father of psychoanalysis responded with comments and pre-established questions without changing bodies.
For the experimental design, the researchers scanned the participants with the aim of obtaining a 3D avatar that resembled the user. In this way, immersed in virtual reality, those involved saw a representation of themselves when looking at parts of their body or when they looked in a mirror; in addition, when they moved, their virtual body also moved.
On the other side of the table the doctor was represented. The participant could explain his personal problem and then could enter Freud’s body. At that moment “He saw the other body and heard him explaining the problem, and he saw his virtual self as if it were another person,” explains Slater.
In short, the experiment allowed you to change bodies and have a conversation, so the participant spoke to himself, but it seemed like a conversation between two different people.
Regarding the results, 80 percent of the members of the group who had changed their bodies noticed a change in their problems, compared to the control group (less than 50 percent).
Scientists do not know if this method could be used without supervision, nor if doctors should be part of the virtual reality procedure, in any case, the main goal was to test the difference between two different versions of virtual reality technology.
Mel Slater suggests that “now that virtual reality is available as a good quality product and at a lower cost than a smartphone, some doctors could use this method.”.
ARTICLE REFERENCE:
University of Barcelona. «Virtual reality to help solve personal problems».
VV.AA. «An experimental study of a virtual reality counseling paradigm using embodied self-dialogue». Scientific Reports, July 2019.
Agencia Sinc. «Virtual reality to help solve personal problems».
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