The effect of viewing a self-celebrity deepfake video about academic success on academic self-efficacy

Abstract

Academic prospect is a source of stress among university students in Hong Kong. Academic self-efficacy (i.e. an attitude toward an individual’s own ability to achieve academic excellence) is an influential factor that affects learning motivations of students of all ages. It was suggested that guided imagery training could help students improve their academic self-efficacy by envisioning their future academic success. However, guided imagery training was shown to be ineffective for some people, especially people with Aphantasia (i.e. the inability to visualize imagery). Previous research showed that Deep-Fake Technology (i.e. the production of a video or image that swaps out a person’s face for someone else’s) could help users improve their self-image by envisioning their ideal selves and viewing a pictured situation in a concrete way (i.e. viewing deepfake videos). However, no research on the effect of viewing a self-celebrity deepfake video about academic success on academic self-efficacy seems available. Hence, the present research examined whether viewing a self-celebrity deepfake video about academic success could enhance academic self-efficacy of university students in the short term and the long term. In the study, participants were randomly assigned to view self-celebrity deepfake videos or original celebrity videos. They completed the Academic Self-Efficacy Questionnaire before viewing the video, right after viewing the video, and after viewing the video for two weeks. Results showed that the academic self-efficacy of the participants viewing self-celebrity deepfake videos significantly increased both in the short term and the long term, as opposed to that of the participants viewing original celebrity videos, which was not significantly different in the short term and the long term. The academic self-efficacy of the participants viewing self-celebrity deepfake videos was also higher in the long term than the short term. For the participants viewing original celebrity videos, there was no significant difference in academic self-efficacy both in the short term and the long term. The findings of this study may potentially provide implications for an alternative approach to guided imagery training for the improvement in academic self-efficacy, which extends the scope of the guided imagery training from the pure guided imagery interventions to the media technology (i.e. Deep-Fake Technology).