Table 14.

Guidelines for possible software factors influencing acute stress.

ID_factor Evidence level	Software	Description	Guidelines
S_5 V	Time pressure	Time pressure defines an (Denovan and Dagnall, 2019): “insufficient time available to complete necessary tasks.” This insufficient time available is an individual perception of the amount of time necessary to fulfill a task (Ordóñez et al., 2015). It is a challenging stressor that can be coped via extra efforts, leading to strain and exhaustion (Prem et al., 2018). Time pressure can impact performance negatively to resolve math problems (Caviola et al., 2017). E.g., time pressure during investigations reduces the number of hypotheses tackled (Alison et al., 2013; Kim S. et al., 2020). Time pressure can be a stressor that impairs performances (less with procedural tasks) (McCoy et al., 2014; Prasad et al., 2020). It can impact response time, e.g.to make a decision (Korporaal et al., 2020). But, defining a deadline has a positive effect on decision-making. Taking decisions under time pressure is usually presented as having a negative impact (Ordóñez et al., 2015). Time pressure negatively impacts performance (Arora et al., 2010) and decision-making (Modi et al., 2020) See also MO_1	Extend time to fulfill a task in VR to avoid inducing stress and impacting work performances (Arora et al., 2010; McCoy et al., 2014; Prasad et al., 2020) Evaluate specifically how time pressure can benefit specific tasks in VR See also MO_1
S_6 IV	Task difficulty	Task difficulty, which encompasses multitasking, negatively influences task performances as it requires a higher mental load (de Dreu et al., 2019; Bretonnier et al., 2020; Modi et al., 2020) Difficulty can also enhance task performance or not change performance (Song et al., 2011; Main et al., 2017) Difficulty can be seen as a stressor (Atchley et al., 2017) Seel also MO_2	Reduce task difficulty in VR to prevent acute stress or frustration via dynamic adaptations to the user or helping agents (Gupta et al., 2020; Halbig and Latoschik, 2021) Seel also MO_2
S_7 II	Public speaking	Workers can suffer from public speaking anxiety, common in the general population (Ebrahimi et al., 2019; Marcel, 2019; Gallego et al., 2022). Public speaking induces acute stress, even in healthy adults without public speaking anxiety, and is used with the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) to study stress in-lab (Allen et al., 2017; Labuschagne et al., 2019; Narvaez Linares et al., 2020). Immersive virtual environments replicating the TSST showed a higher cortisol reactivity than non-immersive (Helminen et al., 2019; Zimmer et al., 2019). Stress-induced with the TSST can impact decision-making (Pabst et al., 2013). Meetings can be in English, like in multinational corporations where workers present foreign language anxiety (Aichhorn and Puck, 2017; Kelsen, 2019; Kim et al., 2019). Presentations in front of peers, debating and, decision making can be seen as a stressor. It applies in VR (Barreda-Ángeles et al., 2020)	Adapt audience feedback to lower down speaking anxiety (Allen et al., 2017; Labuschagne et al., 2019; Narvaez Linares et al., 2020) Provide help in the interface to lower stress at public speaking, especially when using a second language
S_8 VI	Exposure to distressing material	Distressing materials are stressors that can lead to secondary traumatic stress (Perez et al., 2010; Holt and Blevins, 2011; Ludick and Figley, 2017; Molnar et al., 2017; Sprang et al., 2019). It seems legitimate to hypothesize that such induced stress could impair task performances while in VR. Proper training and desensitization with time may reduce risks for workers to present Secondary Traumatic Stress and cope with it: e.g. police workers (Perez et al., 2010; Fortune et al., 2017; Grant et al., 2019). However, while working in VR, distressing material might induce acute stress workers need to cope with while performing tasks	Allow users to control exposure to distressing materials by applying filters on images, videos (Perez et al., 2010)
S_9 IV	Noise	In an office, we can speculate the noise is intermittent (Reinten et al., 2017): speech, phones ringing, software sound design, typing, printing, and walking sounds. These noises contribute to stress at the workplace (Jahncke and Hallman, 2020). Background noise in an office and conversation ranges from 50 to 70 dB (Abouee-Mehrizi et al., 2020). Irrelevant speech noises to a given task and unpredictability impair task performance (Szalma and Hancock, 2011; Marsh et al., 2018; Vasilev et al., 2018). Noise contributes to distraction and disturbance (Vasilev et al., 2018; Abbasi et al., 2020; Jahncke and Hallman, 2020; Minutillo et al., 2021). Noise in a shared VR environment could distract and disturb work (Zeroth et al., 2019)	Create sound control options for users to create a quiet environment. Reduce interface sound feedback, other users' conversations in a collaborative environment (Zeroth et al., 2019)