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Article History

Received: 4 November 2024

Accepted: 3 November 2025

First Online: 23 March 2026

Declarations

:

: The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

: At the time of data collection (2021), the institution had no formal ethics committee. In accordance with institutional procedures at the University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore, the protocol, including the consent procedure and the decision to withhold advance disclosure of specific phobic stimuli to avoid priming effects, was reviewed and approved by the Department Chair and the research supervisor. To preserve the ecological validity of emotional and physiological responses, participants were not pre-informed about the specific phobic stimuli in the virtual reality environment. This approach was assessed as minimal risk because the stimuli were commonly recognized and non-traumatic. To ensure privacy, no personal identifiers were collected or retained that could link the dataset to individual participants. Participant well-being was safeguarded by continuous monitoring during VR exposure, immediate support from the research team, and the availability of on-campus medical and psychiatric services. The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

: All participants were adults (aged 18 years or older). Verbal consent was obtained prior to participation and data from individuals who did not consent to data use were excluded from all analyses. Participants were informed of their right to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty.