Output details
11 - Computer Science and Informatics
University College London
Illusory ownership of a virtual child body causes overestimation of object sizes and implicit attitude changes
<20>Immersive virtual reality (IVR) can be used to give people the illusion of having a different body. Here we show for the first time the profound effects that this can have on the perception, attitudes and behaviours of people. Adults were embodied in a 4 year old child (C) or adult body shrunk to the same size (A). Subjects in C greatly overestimated object sizes, and self-attributed child-like attitudes compared to A. A control condition where body ownership was extinguished also extinguished these effects. The results are important in their implications for a new IVR path for changing the self.