ABOUT ONE THIRD OF the general population regularly experience persecutory and paranoid thoughts according to a new study. Boffins at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, have been using a virtual reality tube ride to measure the extent to which people suffer from paranoia, and the results are higher than ever expected.

Previously, in order to try and determine if a person was paranoid or not, boffins would sit them down in a nice comfortable room with a questionnaire and a choice of warm beverages, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, didn’t exactly make them feel threatened. But now, using virtual reality headsets, study participants are actually transported into a busy London underground tube carriage and made to spend four minutes “traveling” between stops. Populating the carriage are what is described as “neutral computer people”, or avatars, that breathe, read newspapers, look around and occasionally make eye contact and smile at the test participants.

Whilst most testees seemed quite unfazed by the neutral, bordering on friendly, computer generated passengers, a significant 40 per cent recounted having at least one paranoid thought about one or other of them. Researchers said that some even felt distinctly paranoid, making comments like “There was a guy spooking me out – tried to get away from him. Didn’t like his face”, and “The guy opposite may have had sexual intent, manipulation or whatever”.

Probably a reflection of the fear felt by some after the 7 July 2005 London terrorist attacks, there were also comments to the tune of “something dodgy about one guy. Like he was about to do something – assault someone, plant a bomb, say something not nice to me, be aggressive.”

There was no big surprise in the fact that participants who had come across as anxious, worried, depressed and with low self esteem in the study’s pre train ride evaluation, were the ones most likely to feel as if the little smiley computer people were out to get them, but even so, the British Journal of Psychiatry has excitedly published the results.

Psychologist Dr Daniel Freeman, who led the research, said that virtual reality gave mental health professionals a better way “to look at how different people interpret exactly the same social situation”, something that researchers found almost impossible to do in the past. He also reckoned that people were more likely to feel paranoid on public transport, because it’s a place where some feel trapped, observed, and can't hear what others are saying (about them?).

The study didn’t mention if any of the avatars looked distinctly foreign (Brazilian, for example), or wore fashionable puffy winter jackets, but Dr. Freeman did say that Paranoia was getting more attention these days due “to threats such as terrorism". He added that it seemed as if “the one thing that unites the diverse peoples of the world is our fear of one another”. Well, either that or our fear of creepy looking, grinning avatars who keeps looking our way.

Dr Freeman also mentioned that in the near future, virtual reality could be used, not only as an evaluative method, but also as a way to treat people of their phobias. Still, it might be good to remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re paranoid - they're still after you. µ

L’Inq
KCL press release