--- title: Five Best Ideas: VR Can Make You Less Afraid To Die description: Here’s how virtual reality can make you less afraid to die, personality could be affected by the physical structure of the brain and more. canonical: https://time.com/4650184/how-virtual-reality-can-make-you-less-afraid-to-die/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-26T17:00:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:08.452Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Virtual Reality Can Make You Less Afraid To Die og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4650184/how-virtual-reality-can-make-you-less-afraid-to-die/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Virtual Reality Can Make You Less Afraid To Die twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Virtual Reality Can Make You Less Afraid To Die by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 26, 2017 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 26, 2017 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Here’s how virtual reality can make you less afraid to die.**](http://www.seeker.com/a-virtual-out-of-body-experience-could-reduce-your-fear-of-death-2214789977.html) By Glenn McDonald in _Seeker_ **2\.** [**Your personality could be affected by the physical structure of your brain.**](http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/personality-traits-linked-to-differences-in-brain-structure) By the _University of Cambridge_ **3\.** [**The history of food is the history of war and conquest.**](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/local-cuisine-war-tradition-food-history-cultural-travel-180961610/) By Victoria Pope in _Smithsonian_ **4\.** [**Can video games teach empathy and understanding? The UN hopes they might.**](http://www.polygon.com/features/2017/1/24/14364864/unesco-video-games-report) By Colin Campbell in _Polygon_ **5\.** [**Trans people might find fertility help in cancer research.**](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/trans-patients-looking-fertility-options-turn-cancer-research/) By Corinne Segal at _PBS Newshour_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4650184/how-virtual-reality-can-make-you-less-afraid-to-die/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4650184/how-virtual-reality-can-make-you-less-afraid-to-die/"},"headline":"How Virtual Reality Can Make You Less Afraid To Die","datePublished":"2017-01-26T17:00:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:08.452Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4650184/how-virtual-reality-can-make-you-less-afraid-to-die/","keywords":["Innovation","Food","Brain","Video Games","fertility","Virtual Reality"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4650184/how-virtual-reality-can-make-you-less-afraid-to-die/","name":"How Virtual Reality Can Make You Less Afraid To Die"}}]}] ```