Participants watch a 4-minute virtual reality video, on top of reading a brochure, then answer post-intervention questionnaires.

Participants read an informational brochure about depression, then answer post-intervention questionnaires. After that, they will be given a chance to watch the VR video at the end of their participation session.

Participants watch a 4-minute standard video. After which, using a video, a discussion of the video will be facilitated for participants to contextualise and understand the video better. Then, participants answer post-intervention questionnaires.

Participants answer pre-questionnaires, then watch a 4-minute virtual reality video. After which, using a video, a discussion of the video will be facilitated for participants to contextualise and understand the video better. Then, participants answer post-intervention questionnaires.

The 4-minute virtual reality video depicts a day in a life of a student with depression. The one-take video, filmed with a 360° camera, is designed to provide users with an immersive experience that simulates what it feels like to have depression. The user interface consisted of a Google Cardboard VR headset attached to a smartphone.

The extent of agreement with negative beliefs and stereotypes about depression will be adapted from the 10-item agreement sub-scale of the Self-Stigma of Mental Illness Scale.

Stigmatising attitudes refer to the opinions that one has towards persons with depression, and how they would interact with these group of people. This will be measured using an adapted version of the Attribution Questionnaire-27.

A Depression Literacy measure will be used to assess participants' understanding and knowledge of depression.

In the VR condition, enjoyment of the VR simulation will be assessed through five items on a video enjoyment questionnaire created by the researchers, that includes items such as "I found the video interesting" and "The video made me more interested in the topic" on a visual analog scale. The scale was anchored between 0 indicating "Strongly Disagree" to 10 indicating "Strongly Agree".

Presence felt in the VR simulation will be assessed through four items on a video presence questionnaire, that includes items such as "How aware were you of events happening in your actual surroundings outside of the video?" and "How strong was your sense of 'being there' in the video environment?" on a visual analog scale. The questions were adapted from the original Presence Questionnaire by Witmer and Singer (1998) that outlined four sub-factors of control, sensory, distraction and realism; items in our questionnaire were carefully selected to represent all of the factors. The scale ranged from 0 indicating "Not At All" to 10 indicating "Very Much So".

Participants' mood will be assessed using the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) as a secondary measure of user experience with the respective videos. The PANAS consists of two 10-item subscales assessing positive and negative affect, and is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 representing "Very Slightly or Not at All" to 5 representing "Extremely".