Investigation of the Efficacy of a VR Exposure-based Eye Contact Training‬ to Reduce Fear of Public Speaking

The study will be conducted as a randomized controlled single-blind study in a parallel groups design.

Participants will be divided into groups afraid of public speaking with and without fulfilling the criteria of social anxiety (according to DSM-V), which can represent a clinically relevant and more generalized form of public speaking anxiety. The treatment for the participants solely differs in terms of whether they receive (1) the VR exposure or (2) a fear-unrelated VR task (study phase 1) or no treatment at all (study phase 2), resulting in the following 2 groups:

• Group 1 (treatment group) consists of individuals with fear of public speaking that will (in study phase 1) receive a three-session VR exposure and undergo (in study phase 2) a 2-week treatment period with the same VR scenarios, each repeated three times.
• Group 2 (control group) consists of individuals with fear of public speaking that will not receive any active treatment but complete a distractor task in VR in study phase 1 and no treatment in study phase 2.

In study phase 1, the treatment group receives three VR exposure sessions each lasting for 20 minutes, whereas the control group completes three virtual distractor tasks (e.g. virtual tours) of identical duration. In study phase 2, the treatment group completes a home training spanning two weeks (9 x 20-minutes sessions), whereas the control group does not receive any treatment (untreated comparison group).

In study phase 1, before and after the virtual exposure session, participants undergo an in vivo PST to assess the acute effects of the VR exposure-based eye contact training App.

In study phase 2, the participants undergo a third in vivo PST to assess the training effects of the VR exposure-based eye contact training after two weeks of home training.

This design allows a direct isolation and comparison of acute effects (study phase 1) and of training effects (study phase 2) and therefore enables an overall estimation of the effectiveness of the VR exposure-based eye contact training.

Approximately 96 participants between 18 and 40 years with fear of public speaking will take part in the study. Approximately 1 to 5 weeks after having finished the first study phase, all participants that have not dropped out will take part in the second study phase.

Inclusion criteria

• Fear of public speaking, assessed by two separate aspects:
• High fear in social situations including the potential of being evaluated by others
• Social situations can only be withstood under high fear or are avoided
• Aged between 18-40
• Fluent in German

Exclusion criteria

• BDI-II sumscore >= 20
• Suicidal ideation (BDI-II item 9 > 0)
• Serious medical or psychological condition, other than social anxiety (including Depression, Epilepsy and Migraine)
• Concurrent psychotherapy
• Previous exposure-based therapy for social anxiety (including public speaking anxiety) or other anxiety disorders
• Parallel participation in another psychological or medical study
• Chronic medication intake (except oral contraceptives)
• Chronic drug intake (i.e. LSD, mushrooms, Ecstasy, MDMA, amphetamines etc.)
• Medication intake before visits (less than 24 h)
• Alcohol intake before visits (less than 12 h)
• Cannabis or other psychoactive substances (including benzodiazepines) intake before visits (less than 5 days)
• Restricted 3D sight
• For women: Current pregnancy