Social Virtual Reality Is My Therapist: Overcoming Social Anxiety Disorder Through Using Social Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) has long been an important research focus in HCI for treating different phobias. More recently, we have seen a more noticeable upgrade in VR, especially social VR. This research explores how socially anxious people use social VR to interact and practice social skills. The study analyzed 351 Reddit posts and comments and found that the immersive and embodied features of social VR, such as physicality, sense of presence, nonverbal communication and shared activities, can help individuals with a social anxiety disorder (SAD) overcome their fear of social interaction. Additionally, the study investigated if social skills gained in social VR can transfer to the offline world. This work highlights the potential of social VR in treating SAD and can inform the design of future social VR platforms to better support individuals with SAD.