Senua’s psychosis in virtual reality: effects on mental health stigma

Schizophrenia is probably the most stigmatised of all mental health conditions and many interventions have attempted to reduce this. This study examined how playing a serious virtual reality game might address stigmatised attitudes about severe mental illness, and schizophrenia in particular. The game chosen, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, contains a first-person experience of voice-hearing and other psychotic symptoms. We hypothesised that gameplay would increase Empathy, reduce Desire for social distance and improve attitudes to schizophrenia using measures adapted from prior work. We also measured participants’ beliefs about the voices heard by the protagonist, Senua, using the Beliefs about Voices Questionnaire-revised to compare to published data from both clinical and non-clinical voice hearers. 37 participants completed stigma measures both before and after experiencing 20 minutes of the game. Attitudes about schizophrenia significantly improved following the game, but empathy and desire for social distance did not. Results partially support the role that serious games can play in addressing mental health stigma. Overall, Senua’s voices were experienced very similarly to those of clinical voice hearers supporting the clinical veracity of the game depiction of psychosis.