"Everyone has a fear of something. What’s yours?" - this is the main idea of #BeFearless campaign. And the final message is "Fear ends where courage begins".

With the help of VR, Samsung encourages people to overcome two of the most commons fears: fear of heights and fear of public speaking. Through this experiment, Samsung proved that VR can be used more than games or other "experiences".

For #BeFearless experiment, Samsung selected 27 people from 7,500 who applied. They were selected from different countries like: Germania, Australia, Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the United Arab Emirates.

The participants attend a four-week training programme delivered with Gear VR. Once the training programme was finished, they have the chance to face their fear in real life. One of the VR videos simulates the throwing them off a skyscraper attached to a zip line.

During the training, those who were afraid of heights were put VR scenarios at different levels of difficulty. To advance to the next level, participants had to pass an evaluation test based on criteria like heart rate eye movement and self-assessment of anxiety levels.

“This generation does not define themselves by what they have, but by what they do.They are experience seekers who want to discover new and amazing things, live experiences they never thought possible. Through Samsung Gear VR, anyone can reach their full potential. We all have what it takes inside us, but sometimes we can use a little help." said Wain Choi, chief creative officer at Cheil Worldwide, the agency behind #BeFearless campaign.

According to Samsung, the training programme was a success, it helped more than 87.5% of participants to reduce their anxiety level by 23.6%. And the participants who had a fear of public speaking saw an average reduction of 18.7 in anxiety.

In the future, the VR will depend on its capacity to extend beyond gaming industry. In this particular case, VR opened the door to overcome various phobias in a way that isn't stigmatized.

Photo credit: adweek.com