{"doi":"10.20870/ijvr.2023.23.1.7146","title":"Using virtual reality to study the impact of audience size on cortisol responses to the Trier Social Stress Test","abstract":"Virtual Reality Trier Social Stress Test (VR-TSST) protocols have been shown to effectively elicit psychophysiological stress by having participants perform a speech and math task while viewing a virtual (non-present) audience. However, few studies have utilized VR technology to examine variables that would otherwise be difficult to manipulate in the lab. This study examined the impact of a large VR audience (i.e., 200 members) on the physiological (i.e., cortisol) and psychological responses of 140 individuals. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: an in-person (2-person) audience, VR 2-person audience, or a VR 200-person audience condition. Salivary cortisol was collected to assess physiological reactivity and recovery. Participants self-reported psychological responses to the TSST including stress, arousal, emotions, and perceptions of the audience. Results revealed that all conditions elicited stress reactivity. The VR 200-person condition resulted in greater cortisol concentrations and more negative affect than the small VR 2-person audience. Thus the effectiveness of a VR-TSST may be enhanced by the use of a larger virtual audience stimulus.","journal":"International Journal of Virtual Reality","year":2023,"id":356154,"datarank":0.24141568686511508,"base_score":1.6094379124341003,"endowment":1.6094379124341003,"self_citation_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9609,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":652278,"name":"Anna M. Strahm","orcid":"0000-0002-0112-0288","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1105311,"name":"Angela G. Bagne","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1105312,"name":"Clayton J. Hilmert","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1104918,"name":"Garrett S Byron","orcid":"0000-0001-5419-446X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":33,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:13:25.429924Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}