Pain is a multidimensional phenomenon and laboratory studies could show that verbal support can reduce pain. Virtual reality (VR) is a powerful tool to distract from pain, e.g., through higher presence. However, the potential of social pain modulation in VR is unclear. Furthermore, it is unclear what features of virtual characters impact social influences on users.
In a mixed design, healthy participants (N = 97) underwent four within-conditions in VR. In two conditions, virtual characters differing in number of social cues (low: static figure, high: virtual human) provided verbal support during pain stimulation. In two other conditions, no support was provided, but in one condition neutral words were read aloud. Agency of the virtual characters served as between-subjects factor. In the avatar group, participants were led to believe that another participant controlled the virtual characters. In the agent group, participants were told that they interacted with a computer. In fact, in both groups the virtual characters were computer-controlled. Three heat pain stimuli were applied per condition. Pain ratings, presence ratings and psychophysiological measurements were recorded.
Conditions with support compared to no support reduced pain intensity and unpleasantness, albeit with smaller effects than studies with real humans. More social cues led to less pain unpleasantness and higher presence. Agency had no impact.
This means that independent of the perceived agency, virtual characters providing verbal support can reduce pain. Social cues affected not only pain, but also presence, indicating beneficial effects of more human visual appearance on social pain modulation in VR.