Exploring Women's State-Level Anxiety in Response to Virtual Reality Erotica

Virtual Reality (VR)-based treatments for anxiety disorders are efficacious but there is a lack of research examining anxious responses to VR erotica, which could innovate treatments for sexual difficulties. We examined erotica features that elicited anxiety and sexual presence in women. Thirty-eight women viewed erotic videos from different modalities (2D, VR) and points of view (1^st, 3^rd person) and completed anxiety and sexual presence measures before and after each video. Women experienced greater anxiety for VR than 2D films and reported the most anxiety for VR 1^st person films. Sexual presence was affected by modality and point of view.