Giving a presentation over video can be just as nerve-wracking as standing in front of a live audience and in some cases, even more so. A new study published in Nature’s open-access journal Scientific Reports suggests that a simple tweak to what speakers see on screen could make the experience far less stressful.
Researchers at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology explored whether altering the appearance of an audience member using augmented reality filters could reduce presentation anxiety in video calls. In a controlled test with 45 participants, speakers delivered short presentations to an interviewer whose face was digitally masked to appear either as a close friend, an attractive anime character, or left unmodified as a stranger.
The results were striking: when the interviewer appeared as a familiar friend, speakers reported lower anxiety and rated their own performance more highly. They also spoke more and maintained more natural eye contact. By contrast, the anime filter, while intended to soften the social pressure, had little effect, sometimes even making it harder for speakers to interpret feedback.
The study highlights how videoconferencing platforms could go beyond virtual backgrounds to design environments that reduce stress in high-pressure scenarios such as job interviews, training, and education. Familiarity, it seems, is a powerful antidote to performance nerves.
While the researchers caution that more work is needed before such tools are widely deployed, the findings point toward a future where AR-driven customisation helps shape more comfortable, and more confident, virtual communication.
Read the full study here.
This article is based on research published in Scientific Reports: Ziting Gong & Hideaki Kanai, “Effects of appearance modifications on oral presentation anxiety in video conferencing,” Sci Rep 15, 30090 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-15716-z. Images © Gong & Kanai, Scientific Reports (2025), published under CC BY 4.0.