The DOI matches its Crossref record; 41 of the 41 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Experiencing ownership over a dark-skinned body reduces implicit racial bias
Open accessAbstract
Previous studies have investigated how existing social attitudes towards other races affect the way we 'share' their bodily experiences, for example in empathy for pain, and sensorimotor mapping. Here, we ask whether it is possible to alter implicit racial attitudes by experimentally increasing self-other bodily overlap. Employing a bodily illusion known as the 'Rubber Hand Illusion', we delivered multisensory stimulation to light-skinned Caucasian participants to induce the feeling that a dark-skinned hand belonged to them. We then measured whether this could change their implicit racial biases against people with dark skin. Across two experiments, the more intense the participants' illusion of ownership over the dark-skinned rubber hand, the more positive their implicit racial attitudes became. Importantly, it was not the pattern of multisensory stimulation per se, but rather, it was the change in the subjective experience of body ownership that altered implicit attitudes. These findings suggest that inducing an overlap between the bodies of self and other through illusory ownership is an effective way to change and reduce negative implicit attitudes towards outgroups.
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In the citing paper
“Taken together, the findings show that changes in the mental representation of one's own body affect the perceived similarity between one's own body and that of an outgroup, resulting in significant changes in implicit biases.”
From Changing bodies changes minds: Owning another body affects social cognition (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“Ownership of an outgroup body has been found to be associated with a significant reduction in implicit biases against that outgroup.”
From Changing bodies changes minds: Owning another body affects social cognition (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“However, the manipulations used to induce bodily illusions involve highly salient multisensory cues which are strongly predictive of body ownership, and thus may override top-down modulations by social attitudes [9][10][11][12][13].”
From Changing bodies changes minds: Owning another body affects social cognition (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“This study was notable because it demonstrated a role of the self-association in attitude change, whereas previous research [9,10] had investigated more generic positive or negative associations with the embodied social group.”
From Changing bodies changes minds: Owning another body affects social cognition (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“Importantly, participants showed a significant decrease in negative implicit attitudes towards dark skin, which correlated with the strength of ownership experienced over the other-race hand.”
From Changing bodies changes minds: Owning another body affects social cognition (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“The more intense the participants' illusion of ownership over the dark-skinned rubber hand, the more positive their implicit racial attitudes became.”
From Changing bodies changes minds: Owning another body affects social cognition (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“This results in the outgroup not only being associated with the self-concept, as already shown by [11], but also with positive concepts more generally, as shown by [9,10].”
From Changing bodies changes minds: Owning another body affects social cognition (2015) · cites this paper as [9]
In the citing paper
“In both cases, there was a reduction in implicit racial bias associated only with the illusion of ownership of a dark-skinned body.”
From Illusory ownership of a virtual child body causes overestimation of object sizes and implicit attitude changes (2013) · cites this paper as [41]
In the citing paper
“These experiments provide evidence supporting the idea that it is not only prior experience of a body type that influences the extent of perceptual, attitudinal, and behavioral correlates of the body ownership illusion.”
From Illusory ownership of a virtual child body causes overestimation of object sizes and implicit attitude changes (2013) · cites this paper as [41]
In the citing paper
“There is further evidence for this in recent experiments where light-skinned people were induced to experience the illusion of ownership over a black rubber arm (41) and over a dark-skinned virtual body (42).”
From Illusory ownership of a virtual child body causes overestimation of object sizes and implicit attitude changes (2013) · cites this paper as [41]
In the citing paper
“Previous studies on the perceptual, behavioural and cognitive correlates of body transformation have concentrated on embodiment of adult participants in bodies that are representative of a group: for example, children16 or a different race20212324.”
From Conversations between self and self as Sigmund Freud—A virtual body ownership paradigm for self counselling (2015) · cites this paper as [21]
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Citations
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BackgroundMethodInfluentialWhat is embodiment? A psychometric approach
Longo, M. R., Schüür, F., Kammers, M. P. M., Tsakiris, M., & Haggard, P. (2008) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.12.004 · Cited by 956
(2001) · Cited by 864
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Mikami, T., & Fujiki, J. (2023) · Transactions of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering · doi:10.5057/jjske.tjske-d-22-00068
Perceptual Illusions and Distortions in Virtual Reality
Nilsson, N. C. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-23161-2_245
Affectively There?: Exploring the Physiological Correlates of Perspective Taking in Virtual Reality
Yildirim, C., Kucuk, E. E., & Harrell, D. F. (2023) · International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction Workshops and Demos (ACIIW) · doi:10.1109/aciiw59127.2023.10388105
Limitations and Future Developments
Marchioro, D. M., Fonseca, A. A., Benatti, F., & Zuin, M. (2024) · Palgrave Studies in Cyberpsychology. · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-68196-7_7
Theoretical Framework: Understanding BID Through Embodiment
Loriga, L. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-82443-2_2
Virtual bodyswapping reduces bias against other races
Manos Tsakiris, A. (2015) · doi:10.64628/aai.5u9s5mtj7
Yildirim, C., Şengün, S., & Harrell, D. F. (2025) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-97763-3_6 · Cited by 1
Investigating Body Representation with Rubber Hand Illusion Paradigm and Its Variant
瞿, 珏. (2021) · Advances in Psychology · doi:10.12677/ap.2021.114099
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Placidi, V., Cuomo, G., Boukarras, S., Era, V., Aglioti, S. M., & Candidi, M. (2026) · Social Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/17470919.2026.2628717
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Schuhl, J. (2020) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/6518276ez4b1fz4a99za875za70c90e5f798
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Reconstruction and Performance of Self Within Virtual Environments
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Prosthetic Consciousness: Neuroscience and the Making of the Cyborg Subject
Kesavan, A. P. (2026) · The Creative Launcher · doi:10.53032/tcl.2026.11.2.08
Frisari, F. V., Kosić, A., Bonora, M., Kenfack, C. S. K., & Alvídrez, S. (2026) · Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies · doi:10.1080/15562948.2026.2687134 · Cited by 2
Facing Empathy: Reducing Facial-Differences Bias Through a Story
Chouinard, B., Cheuk, M., Hodgetts, W. E., & Cummine, J. (2026) · The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal · doi:10.1177/10556656261455305
Elyoseph, R., Bodner, E., & Friedman, D. A. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1868756
Exploring Virtual Embodiment and Implicit Racial Bias in Adolescents and Adults
Nava, E., Banakou, D., Christofi, M., Kyrlitsias, C., Girondini, M., & Michael‐Grigoriou, D. (2026) · Virtual Worlds · doi:10.3390/virtualworlds5030040
The role of the body in generating the self
Verma, S. (2026) · Nature Reviews Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44159-026-00619-1
Metadata
- Authors
- Maister, L., Sebanz, N., Knoblich, G., & Tsakiris, M.
- Affiliations
- Royal Holloway University of London (GB)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- Central European University (AT)
- Corresponding author
- Maister, Lara
- Venue
- Cognition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-08
- Volume
- 128
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 170-178
- ISSN
- 0010-0277 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3750641
- OpenAlex
- W2038594232
- Cited by
- 221
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 7
- FWCI
- 42.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Experimental Psychology Society
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Keywords
- implicit racial bias, body ownership, rubber hand illusion, multisensory integration, dark skin, outgroup attitudes, implicit attitudes, embodiment, intergroup attitudes
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attitude, Body Image, Female, Humans, Illusions, Male, White People, Racial Groups, Young Adult, Racism
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