Title: In the patient’s shoes: effect of immersion on psychologist students’ communication
Authors: Goosse, M. MPsy 1 ; Willems, S. PhD 1
1 Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit (PsyNCog), University of Liege, Liege, Belgium
Introduction Empathy is a core competency in any health care relationship [1], [2]. In the context of psychotherapy, empathy is an important predictor of efficacy [3]. Immersive videos (IV) give the user the opportunity of living a story in a first person perspective [4], [5] which enhance cognitive empathy and impact attitudes toward outgroup members [6][7]. However, these conclusions are based on self-reported measures and no evidences exist regarding the IV’s impact on actual behavior. This pilot study aim to explore the impact of immersion into old-patient shoes on empathetic communication with an actual old-patient.
Methodology Students in psychology were randomly assigned to an experimental (EC, N=22) or control condition (CC, N=22). In the EC, participants were immersed in the skin of an old woman confronted to ageist attitudes in context of psychological counseling, via 360° video. In the control group, the subjects received only a few instructions to improve their communication. Empathetic communication skills (5) were assessed before and after both condition through role-play with an old woman.
Results Immersion enhance empathetic communication by increasing the number of open-ended questions (p=0.02) and concretizations about patient’s perspective (p=0.05).
Conclusion This pilot study shows interesting results. It implies that immersion can not only enhance cognitive empathy and attitudes [6], [7], but also lead to improved communication skills. It would be interesting to replicate this study with a larger sample and to assess the sustainability of improvements over the long term.
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[5] S. S. Sundar, J. Kang, and D. Oprean, “Being There in the Midst of the Story: How Immersive Journalism Affects Our Perceptions and Cognitions,” Cyberpsychology, Behav. Soc. Netw., vol. 20, no. 11, pp. 672–682, 2017.
[6] F. Herrera, J. Bailenson, E. Weisz, E. Ogle, and J. Zak, Building long-term empathy: A large-scale comparison of traditional and virtual reality perspective-taking, vol. 13, no. 10. 2018.
[7] P. Bertrand, J. Guegan, L. Robieux, C. A. McCall, and F. Zenasni, “Learning empathy through virtual reality: Multiple strategies for training empathy-related abilities using body ownership illusions in embodied virtual reality,” Front. Robot. AI, vol. 5, no. MAR, 2018.
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