Virtual environments can be restorative.
Virtual environments can be restorative.
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VR study shows virtual avatars and environments can affect your mood

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 5 min

Your choice of virtual environments and avatars can promote positive psychological outcomes when you’re using virtual reality headsets.

Stanford University researchers reported in a research paper that personalized avatars and pretty environments can be psychologically restorative in a study.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.