Speaker responses to audience-induced social-evaluative threat: Evidence from scientific presentation tasks in immersive virtual reality

Success in public speaking hinges on engaging an audience - a high-stakes social interaction that remains a significant source of anxiety and stress for many. Using a virtual-reality (VR) paradigm, we tested how speakers delivering scientific talks perceive and respond to supportive vs. unsupportive audiences. We collected behavioral (eye contact, speech rate, motion expressiveness/openness), physiological (heart rate, EEG, 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 slowed the speaking rate and acoustic analyses further indicated greater emotional arousal and vocal dominance in the unsupportive condition. Finally, VR exposure reduced speaking anxiety overall. 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.