CyberSelf: Embodied Self-Distancing for Emotional Support in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Self-distancing is an effective emotion regulation strategy; however, it may fail during personal crises due to its cognitive demands. Virtual Reality (VR) provides a novel approach to externalizing psychological distance by enabling embodied self-representation. In this paper, we present CyberSelf, a VR system for emotional support that integrates a visually self-resembling avatar, a cloned self-voice, and Large Language Model (LLM)-driven real-time dialogue. The system enables users to engage in multi-turn conversations with their self-representations in immersive VR, enabling embodied self-distancing while maintaining a strong sense of self-relevance. We evaluated CyberSelf in a short-term study that compares three levels of self-representation richness (Text, Text+Voice, and Text+Voice+Appearance). The results demonstrated robust pre-post improvements across affective and coping measures, specifically increased valence, arousal, hope, and resilience, as well as reduced anxiety and simulator sickness. Richer representations increased conversational engagement, and full embodiment produced the strongest physiological indicators of emotional regulation. A subsequent four-week long-term study demonstrated that these benefits are both sustainable and cumulative. Additionally, users rated the reconstructed avatar and the cloned voice as highly recognizable and acceptable. Collectively, these findings suggest that embodied, self-resembling conversational agents provide a viable mechanism for externalizing self-distancing and supporting emotional regulation in VR.