Putting yourself in the skin of a black avatar reduces implicit racial bias

Consciousness and Cognition

Tabitha C. Peck

Sofia Seinfeld

Salvatore M. Aglioti

Mel Slater

Body ownership

IAT

Implicit Association Test

Racial bias

embodiment

virtual environment

virtual reality

Although it has been shown that immersive virtual reality (IVR) can be used to induce illusions of ownership over a virtual body (VB), information on whether this changes implicit interpersonal attitudes is meager. Here we demonstrate that embodiment of light-skinned participants in a dark-skinned VB significantly reduced implicit racial bias against dark-skinned people, in contrast to embodiment in light-skinned, purple-skinned or with no VB. 60 females participated in this between-groups experiment, with a VB substituting their own, with full-body visuomotor synchrony, reflected also in a virtual mirror. A racial Implicit Association Test (IAT) was administered at least three days prior to the experiment, and immediately after the IVR exposure. The change from pre- to post-experience IAT scores suggests that the dark-skinned embodied condition decreased implicit racial bias more than the other conditions. Thus, embodiment may change negative interpersonal attitudes and thus represent a powerful tool for exploring such fundamental psychological and societal phenomena.

22

3

779-787

September 2013

Consciousness and Cognition

10.1016/j.concog.2013.04.016

1053-8100