Fig. 1: Visualization of the experimental set up in the virtual reality (VR) study including the virtual agent and example trial sequence.

A The virtual environment in the VR study was an exact replication of the testing room used in the real-life study. The virtual agent was created based on a body scan of the person that was present in the real-life study. B Participants were presented with abstract symbols that were associated with an aversive or a neutral sound. After the presentation of the sound, they rated how they felt on a scale from −4 (very bad) to +4 (very good).