# Behavioural Realism and Its Impact on Virtual Reality Social Interactions Involving Self-Disclosure
## 1 Introduction
### Behavioural Realism May Improve Outcomes for VR-Based Therapy  
Conducting therapy in VR has the potential to enhance the effectiveness of therapy for some individuals. Interacting through avatars may help to provide a feeling of privacy and anonymity, which may help to reduce feelings of anxiety and improve comfort. As a result, therapeutic retention and outcomes might be improved [52; 69; 70; 71; 72; 73; 74]. However, this approach also has limitations, as therapists using avatars that lack behavioural realism might make it harder to build trust and rapport [70; 75].  
The cost and technical expertise required to operate motion-captured avatars may deter therapists interested in using realistic avatars for psychological therapy. This could potentially restrict their options to VR headsets that have limited motion tracking for only some behavioural realism. However, more accessible VR avatars may still offer benefits for therapeutic purposes and provide a viable option for therapists where affordability is important. It is unclear how these more accessible headsets with limited motion tracking compare to more sophisticated motion capture. Therefore, investigating how different types of motion capture can affect an avatar's behavioural realism during VR social interactions involving self-disclosure could help inform and guide future researchers and psychologists on how to use avatars for therapy conducted in VR.  
[PERSON] et al. [23] investigated how VR compares to face-to-face interactions for disclosing positive and negative life experiences. In VR, participants engaged with a human-like avatar animated in real time with motion capture technology to ensure a high level of behavioural realism. The results showed that while face-to-face interactions were rated higher than the VR interaction in terms of closeness and comprehension, there were no differences in awkwardness, feeling understood, enjoyment, closeness, and comfort. Furthermore, when asked to indicate a preference, approximately 30% of the participants reported that they felt more at ease discussing negative experiences in VR. This research indicated that at least for some, discussing negative experiences with an avatar that is controlled by a real therapist might be more comforting than interacting with a therapist in real life.  
Expanding on this research, [PERSON] et al. [22] explored how the different levels of behavioural realism of an avatar's face and body could affect social interactions involving disclosure. Following a similar procedure to [PERSON] et al. [23], participants shared a positive and negative experience with an avatar under different behavioural realism conditions. In their post-experiment survey, 41% of their participants reported that an avatar driven by full-body motion capture with a high level of behavioural realism was the most enjoyable and comfortable to interact with. This was followed by 20% of participants reporting that they enjoyed and felt most comfortable with an avatar with moderate behavioural realism (i.e., either face or body motion capture but not both). Finally, 18% reported that they preferred interacting with an avatar with the lowest level of behavioural realism. Their results suggest that for a small minority, enhancing the behavioural realism of an avatar might not be essential to improving VR social interactions.  
The studies by [PERSON] et al. [23] and [PERSON] et al. [22] contribute to our overall understanding of how avatar realism can affect VR social interactions involving self-disclosure. However, the participants in these studies were only required to recall their own experiences, and no disclosures were made by the person controlling the avatar, potentially reducing participants' observation and engagement with the avatars. To address this, a reciprocal approach where the participant and researcher controlling the avatar disclose their personal experiences may help clarify if attention may affect ratings towards the avatars.