Ventura Sara, Miragall Marta, Cardenas Georgina, Baños Rosa M
Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Instituto Polibienestar, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2022 May 6;16:845508. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.845508. eCollection 2022.
The sense of embodiment refers to the set of sensations related to having (i.e., ownership), being located in (i.e., location), and controlling (i.e., agency) a virtual body. Recently, 360-degree video-based Virtual Reality (VR) has been used to manipulate the sense of embodiment, generating the body-swap illusion, that is, the illusionary switch from the real body to a virtual one. However, the psychological mechanisms involved in this illusion are still unknown. The present study is a secondary analysis of the study by Ventura et al. (2021) investigating the feasibility of 360-degree video to induce the body swap from a male's real body to a female virtual body in a sexual harassment virtual environment. In addition, the study explores whether the sense of presence and psychological trait variables related to sexual harassment (i.e., machismo, chivalry, alexithymia, empathic abilities) predict the illusion of owning the body of a female victim of sexual harassment. Forty-four men participated in the study, and the results indicate that the 360-degree video is able to induce the body-swap illusion for location and ownership, but not for agency. Multiple regression analyses showed that the sense of presence was a predictor of the three dimensions of embodiment, but specific psychological traits (i.e., low scores on machismo, high scores on difficulties expressing feelings, and high scores on perspective taking) were also predictor variables of experiencing a greater sense of location and agency in the female virtual body. This study shows that both technological issues and participants' psychological traits are involved in the experience of the body-swap illusion in a sexual harassment scenario using 360-degree video-based VR.
具身感是指与拥有（即所有权）、位于（即位置）和控制（即能动性）一个虚拟身体相关的一系列感觉。最近，基于360度视频的虚拟现实（VR）已被用于操纵具身感，产生身体互换错觉，即从真实身体到虚拟身体的错觉性切换。然而，这种错觉所涉及的心理机制仍然未知。本研究是对文图拉等人（2021年）的研究进行的二次分析，该研究调查了在性骚扰虚拟环境中，360度视频诱导从男性真实身体到女性虚拟身体的身体互换的可行性。此外，该研究还探讨了临场感以及与性骚扰相关的心理特质变量（即大男子主义、骑士精神、述情障碍、共情能力）是否能预测拥有性骚扰女性受害者身体的错觉。44名男性参与了该研究，结果表明，360度视频能够诱导位置和所有权方面的身体互换错觉，但不能诱导能动性方面的错觉。多元回归分析表明，临场感是具身感三个维度的一个预测因素，但特定的心理特质（即大男子主义得分低、表达情感困难得分高、换位思考得分高）也是在女性虚拟身体中体验到更强位置感和能动性的预测变量。本研究表明，在使用基于360度视频的VR的性骚扰场景中，身体互换错觉的体验既涉及技术问题，也涉及参与者的心理特质。
