Smoking Cessation Coaching in High-Risk Situations: A Virtual Reality Study

"In the boost motivation and self-efficacy dialog, the conversational agent will tell the participant that they can successfully resist smoking, try to take away their self-doubts and assert that the participant can and will succeed. For example, the conversational agent will send text messages such as: Even though the temptation can be high, I have no doubts that you can resist smoking in this situation. If you want something, you can do it. Believe in yourself!."

"In the future-selves and implementation intentions dialog, the conversational agent will first tell the participant to imagine themselves in a future in which they successfully quit smoking (i.e., desired future self). The conversational agent can send text messages such as: Please think about yourself in the future. Imagine that you have quit smoking successfully. Think about the person you will be. What do you look like? What does your life look like? Consider this future image as well as you can.. This procedure will be repeated for a future in which the participant continued smoking (i.e., the undesired future self). Finally, the conversational agent will explain to the participant that it is important to think about how to resist smoking in HRSs (i.e., implementation intentions) to ensure that the participant comes closer to becoming their desired future self as non-smoker and to avoid their undesired future self as a smoker."

"In the identity-related positive self-talk dialog, the conversational agent will tell the participant to use positive self-talk focused on their identity to motivate themselves to successfully resist smoking. For example, the conversational agent will send text messages such as: When you feel tempted to smoke, it can help to say positive things to yourself and motivate yourself to resist the temptation. What positive things can you say about yourself to motivate yourself to resist smoking? For instance, 'I am a strong person who can resist smoking' or 'I am a person who is persistent and has control over the urge to smoke'. Now say the sentence(s) you find motivating or your own motivating words to yourself, by thinking it, and repeating it in your head or out loud.."

"The neutral dialog will act as an attention control condition. In this dialog, the conversational agent will not provide support using relapse prevention strategies. Instead, the conversational agent will start with a short introduction (e.g., Hi, how are you doing?), ask questions to show interest (e.g., How are you feeling today?) and will talk about a neutral topic (e.g., animals; What is your favorite animal?), and then closes the conversation (e.g., It was nice speaking with you. I hope you have a good rest of the day!)."