XR Cognitive Defusion Experience Building Financial Wellbeing in Young Adults

Mindsets have been proven to be one of the most indicative factors in determining financial risk and a significant barrier to becoming better with money (Money and Pensions Service 'What Works' FinCap Welsh pilot findings) and yet no solution takes mindsets into account when trying to build financial capability.

Our approach to financial capability and mental health starts with understanding mindsets and sees the potential of delivering guidance in a way that encourages learning in a safe and supportive way as a method to keep people from burying their head in the sand, and falling into FOFO (Fear of Finding out) moments, which our research shows are major obstacles to people feeling in control of their financial future.

Our target audience, Gen Z's, are notoriously difficult to engage when it comes to learning about money from real experts (as opposed to Fintokers or Finstagram influencers who can often misguide them). Our research also shows that the design and user experience of our digital interventions will be critical to our success.

This project will focus specifically on the development of a XR simulator, which will delve further into mindsets related to money and mental health to deliver an engaging and compelling experience for our Gen Z users. We are developing the ability to simulate personalised scenarios around financial, life and risk predictions, driven by transactional and psychometric data, and conversations with our chatbot to create a safe, virtual space where mistakes can be made and learned from, without real world financial or emotional consequences.