The Potential Benefits of Personalized 360 Video Experiences on Affect: A Proof-of-Concept Study

Despite the importance of healthy affect to improving hospital outcomes, effective means of promoting healthy affect have yet to be elucidated. One unexplored solution lies with virtual reality (VR) technologies. The present study sought to investigate whether personalized VR interventions could improve affect levels in a university sample (n = 33) and one hospitalized patient depending upon one's baseline affective profile. Positive and Negative Affect Schedule scores were compared before and after witnessing important life events/environments in VR and interview responses were analyzed. Within the university student sample, those with high affective profiles produced significantly greater post/pre negative affect (NA) score decreases than self-fulfilling and low affective profiles. The patient experienced a 10-point increase in positive affect and a 7-point decrease in NA. Overall, the current study tended to demonstrate the acceptability and efficacy of personalized VR experiences in promoting healthy affect.