In our lives, we encounter various stressors that may cause negative mental and bodily reactions to make us feel frustrated, angry, or irritated. Effective methods to manage or reduce stress and anxiety are essential for a healthy life, and several stress-management approaches are found to be useful for stress relief, such as meditation, taking a rest, walking around nature, or even breaking things in a smash room. Previous research has revealed that certain experiences in virtual reality (VR) are effective for reducing stress as traditional real-world methods. However, it is still unclear how the stress relief effects are associated with other factors like individual user profile in terms of different treatment activities. In this paper, we report our findings from a formal user study that investigates the effects of two virtual activities: (1) VR Meditation and (2) VR Smash Room experience, compared with a traditional Sitting-in-Silence method. Our results show that VR Meditation has a better stress relief effect compared to VR Smash Room and Sitting-in-Silence, and the effects of the treatments are correlated with the participants' personalities. We discuss the findings and implications addressing potential benefits/impacts of different stress-relief activities in VR.

翻译：生活中，我们面临各种压力源，可能引发消极的心理和生理反应，使人感到沮丧、愤怒或烦躁。有效管理或缓解压力与焦虑的方法对健康生活至关重要，现有多种压力管理方式被证实有效，例如冥想、休息、漫步自然，甚至是在发泄室中摔砸物品。既往研究表明，虚拟现实中的特定体验与传统现实方法同样能有效缓解压力。然而，不同治疗活动下压力缓解效果如何与其他因素（如个体用户画像）相关联仍不明确。本文报告了一项正式用户研究的结果，探究两种虚拟活动——（1）VR冥想与（2）VR发泄室体验——相较于传统静坐方法的减压效果。结果显示，VR冥想比VR发泄室和静坐具有更优的减压效果，且治疗效应与参与者人格特质相关。我们讨论了研究结果及其启示，剖析VR中不同减压活动的潜在益处与影响。