Meditating with one’s avatar in virtual reality enhances self-compassion and perspective-taking

Objectives:Regular self-compassion practice is associated with improved mental health by fostering kindness toward one’s suffering and relying on self-related processes like perspective-taking. It is not known whether recently described self-related processes of self-identification, that rely on multisensory own body signals (tested in virtual reality (VR) by exposing participants to an avatar and multisensory stimulation) also contribute to self-compassion meditation. We integrated virtual reality (VR)-based self-compassion meditation with multisensory stimulation promoting self-identification with the avatar. Methods:We designed a practice that integrated VR, multisensory stimulation, and audio-guided self-compassion meditation. Participants carried out a VR-based avatar self-compassion condition (ASC), and a standard self-compassion condition (SSC). Pre- and post-meditation assessments included scores of the State Self-Compassion Scale, Self-Other Four Immeasurables (SOFI) Scale, and an Own Body Transformation task to measure self-compassion, positive/negative qualities, perspective-taking ability, and electrocardiogram (ECG), respectively.Results:Participants in both ASC and SSC condition, demonstrated significantly higher self-compassion scores, increased positive qualities, and reduced negative valence (SOFI) versus baseline. Perspective-taking ability, as measured in the OBT task, improved in the ASC versus SSC condition, without any ECG differences. Conclusions:This study shows that (1) incorporating VR-based multisensory stimulation with an avatar into self-compassion practice (ASC) is feasible, (2) both ASC and SSC induced higher compassion ratings characterized by decreased negative and increased positive qualities comparable to the baseline, and that (3) ASC meditation improved perspective-taking more than SSC. We propose that multisensory perceptual cues provided by VR can support perspective-taking, potentially fostering empathetic engagement towards oneself, aiding self-compassion practices.