Using immersive 360° videos to asses sub-clinical forms of paranoia in the general population

For around fifteen years, virtual reality has been used as a new tool for studying paranoia. However, the use of virtual reality is expensive and requires the modelling of avatars that remain far from realistic in terms of facial and bodily expressions. As an alternative, 360-degree videos allow the creation of immersive environments to be more accessible and much more human-like. The aim of the present study was to validate a set of 360-degree videos as tools to identify sub-clinical forms of paranoia in the general population.
Three videos representing daily scenarios (with four to fifteen actors) were created in a bar, a lift and a library. One hundred and seventy participants were assessed in terms of their general tendency towards paranoia (trait paranoia) before they viewed one video (using an Oculus Go headset). Finally, participants completed the State Paranoia Scale and the Sense of Presence Inventory.
For both the lift and the library videos: an adequate sense of presence was found, and significant correlations between trait paranoia and state paranoia indicated good convergent and divergent validity.
The present study suggests that the use of 360° videos is a promising tool to study forms of paranoia in the general population.