Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Ava DeMaio. I am from New Haven, Connecticut. As a psychology major, my research goals combine clinical and social psychology to explore how various environments, whether social or professional, may affect mental health. I hope to go on to earn my PhD in Clinical Psychology, where I will further my study in these areas.

Virtual Reality and Suicide: Assessing Risks for Researchers

Abstract

The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide states that individuals act on suicidal desire when they have the capability to do so (Joiner, 2005). Recent studies have used virtual reality (VR) to examine suicide, with findings suggesting VR suicide exposure does not cause negative psychological effects (Huang et al., 2020; Huang et al., 2021). However, the impact on suicide researchers remains unexplored. Given that crisis workers (e.g., physicians) exhibit higher rates of suicidal ideation due to repeated exposure to provocative work events, it is crucial to investigate whether VR suicide research increases suicide risk. These VR studies often require researchers to virtually die by suicide multiple times over several weeks to complete numerous test runs of the trial for training purposes and before recruitment. We will recruit 20 individuals who research suicide. After consent procedures, participants will complete pre-exposure questionnaires assessing fearlessness about suicide and death. Participants will then complete four VR suicide scenarios, randomized via a balanced Latin Square Design. Between each scenario participants will be asked how disturbing and uncomfortable each scenario was. After all four scenarios, participants will retake the fearlessness about death and fearlessness about suicide questionnaires in Qualtrics. This process will be repeated two more times at least one week apart. A repeated measure ANOVA will compare pre- and post-exposure suicide capability scores to determine the psychological impact of prolonged VR suicide exposure.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Suicide, Risk for Researchers