Behavioral Framework of Immersive Technologies (BehaveFIT): How and Why Virtual Reality can Support Behavioral Change Processes

Abstract

The design and evaluation of assisting technologies to support behavior change processes have become an essential topic within the field of human-computer interaction research in general and the field of immersive intervention technologies in particular. The mechanisms and success of behavior change techniques and interventions are broadly investigated in the field of psychology. However, it is not always easy to adapt these psychological findings to the context of immersive technologies. The lack of theoretical foundation also leads to a lack of explanation as to why and how immersive interventions support behavior change processes. The Behavioral Framework for immersive Technologies (BehaveFIT) addresses this lack by 1) presenting an intelligible categorization and condensation of psychological barriers and immersive features, by 2) suggesting a mapping that shows why and how immersive technologies can help to overcome barriers and finally by 3) proposing a generic prediction path that enables a structured, theory-based approach to the development and evaluation of immersive interventions. These three steps explain how BehaveFIT can be used, and include guiding questions for each step. Further, two use cases illustrate the usage of BehaveFIT. Thus, the present paper contributes to guidance for immersive intervention design and evaluation, showing that immersive interventions support behavior change processes and explain and predict 'why' and 'how' immersive interventions can bridge the intention-behavior-gap.

Resize Me! Exploring the User Experience of Embodied Realistic Modulatable Avatars for Body Image Intervention in Virtual Reality

“…Treatments for body image disturbances mainly rely on cognitive-behavioral therapy, typically combining psychoeducation and self-monitoring tasks, mirror exposure, or video feedback (Farrell et al, 2006;Ziser et al, 2018;Griffen et al, 2018). Based on the fundamentals of these established methods, an increasing number of researchers have started to explore VR applications as additional support for attitude and behavior change in general (Wienrich et al, 2021) and therapy of body image disturbance (Riva, 1997;Ferrer-Garcia et al, 2009Riva et al, 2019;Turbyne et al, 2021) and obesity in particular (Horne et al, 2020;Döllinger et al, 2019).…”

“…These methods often use 3D models of human beings (Horne et al, 2020;Turbyne et al, 2021), which can be called avatar as they represent a particular user (Bailenson and Blascovich, 2004). VR in general, and the confrontation with avatars in particular, have great potential to influence human perception and behavior (Wienrich et al, 2021). Especially the feeling of embodiment towards an avatar holds enormous potential for therapeutic purposes (Matamala-Gomez et al, 2021).…”

eXtended Artificial Intelligence: New Prospects of Human-AI Interaction Research

“…Recent results show the Proteus effect caused by self-avatars also applies to the digital counterparts (the avatars) of others. Others demonstrated how XR potentials are linked to psychological variables (Wienrich and Gramlich, 2020;Wienrich et al, 2021a).…”

“…Results stemming from human-human interactions have shown that XR provides high ecological validity and high standardization for investigating social interactions between humans (Blascovich et al, 2002;Bombari et al, 2015;Pan and Hamilton, 2018;Wienrich and Gramlich, 2020;Wienrich et al, 2021a). AI applications, becoming increasingly interactive and embodied, lead up to essential changes from an HCI perspective and challenges of a valid and systematic investigability.…”

“…This approach, which is central to the principles in HCI, however, is difficult to realize due to the large design space of embodiments in, and the sheer complexity of many fields of applications of the real physical world. Another rising technology cluster, XR, accounts for control and systematic manipulations of complex interactions (Blascovich et al, 2002;Wienrich and Gramlich, 2020;Wienrich et al, 2021a). Hence, XR provides much potential to increase the investigability of human-AI interactions and interfaces.…”