Illusory ownership of an invisible body reduces autonomic and subjective social anxiety responses

What is it like to be invisible? This question has long fascinated man and has been the central theme of many classic literary works. Recent advances in materials science suggest that invisibility cloaking of the human body may be possible in the not-so-distant future. However, it remains unknown ho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2015-04, Vol.5 (1), p.9831-9831, Article 9831
Main Authors: Guterstam, Arvid, Abdulkarim, Zakaryah, Ehrsson, H. Henrik
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378/2649/1723
631/477
Abdomen
Adult
Anxiety
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Digital cameras
Experiments
Female
Heart rate
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Hypotheses
Illusions - physiology
Male
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
multidisciplinary
Perception
Science
Self image
Social anxiety
Social interactions
Space Perception - physiology
Surveys and Questionnaires
Touch Perception - physiology
Visual Perception - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:What is it like to be invisible? This question has long fascinated man and has been the central theme of many classic literary works. Recent advances in materials science suggest that invisibility cloaking of the human body may be possible in the not-so-distant future. However, it remains unknown how invisibility affects body perception and embodied cognition. To address these questions, we developed a perceptual illusion of having an entire invisible body. Through a series of experiments, we characterized the multisensory rules that govern the elicitation of the illusion and show that the experience of having an invisible body reduces the social anxiety response to standing in front of an audience. This study provides an experimental model of what it is like to be invisible and shows that this experience affects bodily self-perception and social cognition.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep09831