Self-review and feedback in virtual reality dialogues increase language markers of personal and emotional expression in an empathetic communication training experience

Technological advancements have transformed how people communicate, work, and develop critical skills, especially in leadership. These changes will require nuanced skills, particularly empathetic communication, which is pivotal in managing teams and maintaining high performance in distributed work environments. Virtual reality has shown encouraging results in developing empathy and communication skills. Moreover, natural language processing techniques can provide a deeper understanding of communication patterns and nuances. However, there is still much to learn about how virtual reality can support active, empathetic communication training in the workplace. Hence, we first developed a virtual reality experience where participants could embody the manager and the employee in a performance review meeting. Then, we investigated the effects of reviewing one's performance and receiving feedback in a virtual reality perspective-taking task, compared to not reviewing or receiving feedback. The study was pre-registered and followed a pre-and post-test study design. One hundred nine participants were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions: perspective-taking, perspective-taking with self-review, or perspective-taking with self-review and feedback. Empathetic communication skills were measured through self-report measures, human-coded scoring of written and spoken behavior, and natural language processing. Results showed that receiving feedback while reviewing one's performance in a perspective-taking task increased emotional expressions in oral communication. Repeating the interaction a second time increased the use of the “I” pronoun and decreased the use of “you.” Improvement in empathetic communication was not linked to feeling concern for others. We discuss implications for theories of learning via media and implications for practitioners.