Virtual Exposure Training Program for Public Speaking

University of Twente Research Information

Abstract

Many people fear public speaking, consequently, it may lead to fewer opportunities in work employment or social life. There are various training programs to help people reduce their public speaking anxiety, however, many of them focused more on practical skills but less on the social effects, such as emotional expressions and trust. This study intends to take an important step in that direction. First, we conducted a study to gain fundamental insights into emotion and trust by investigating whether people mimic virtual humans’ facial expressions and whether mimicry behavior predicts the evaluation, the desire for future interaction, and trust toward the virtual human. Next, we will conduct follow-up studies, develop the virtual exposure training program (VETP), and evaluate it. Ultimately, we aim to develop a VETP that will make the speaker have lower levels of anxiety, improved emotional expression recognition capacities, and improved trust in others after the training. - - - - - Poster at IVA 2022 (as part of the Doctoral Consortium Programme) - - - - -

Authors 4

1. Evania Lina Fasya
   Affiliation as printed

   Human Media Interaction

2. Esther van den Bos
3. Mariska Esther Kret Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University

4. Dirk Heylen
   Affiliation as printed

   Digital Society Institute

   Human Media Interaction