Examining speakers’ subjective and bio-behavioral responses to audience-induced social-evaluative threat via immersive VR

Success in public speaking hinges on engaging an audience, which involves a high-stakes social interaction process that remains a significant source of anxiety and stress for many. Using a virtual-reality (VR)-based experimental paradigm, we tested how speakers delivering scientific talks perceive and respond to supportive vs. unsupportive audiences. We collected behavioral (gaze, paralinguistics, motion expressiveness/openness), physiological (heart rate, electroencephalography, breathing rate, pupil dilation), and self-report measures to assess audience effects. The unsupportive audience elicited greater negative affect, arousal, and anxiety, and higher perceived cognitive and social effort. Physiologically and behaviorally, speaking to the unsupportive audience decreased the speaking rate. Acoustic analyses further indicated greater emotional arousal and vocal dominance in the unsupportive condition. These findings highlight VR combined with physiological measurement as a powerful approach for investigating audience effects and social-communication processes, with clear implications for augmenting social intelligence and communication skills.