Using Digital Art and Attachment Priming in a Web-Based Serious Game to Reduce Pain and Social Disconnection in Individuals With Chronic Pain and Loneliness: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Arts engagement using virtual reality and serious games represent promising nonpharmacological self-management treatment approaches to chronic pain. This study is the first randomized controlled trial to explore the impact of a web-based serious game that simulated a visit to an art museum on pain and social disconnection among individuals living with chronic pain and loneliness.

Objective: This study aimed to test the joint and separate effects of exposure to digital art and attachment figure priming on pain and social disconnection among individuals living with chronic pain and loneliness.

Face the Uncanny: The Effects of Doppelganger Talking Head Avatars on Affect-Based Trust Toward Artificial Intelligence Technology are Mediated by Uncanny Valley Perceptions.

This experiment ( = 228) examined how exposure to a talking head doppelganger created by an artificial intelligence (AI) program influenced affect-based trust toward AIs. Using a 3 (talking head featuring the participant's or a stranger's face, audio-only condition) by 2 (pro-AI pitch and anti-AI pitch playback) design, we uncovered that exposure to a talking head featuring the participant's face instead of a stranger's face increased uncanny valley perceptions. Furthermore, uncanny valley perceptions mediated the link between exposure to a talking head with the participant's face on affect-based trust.