“Scientists have transferred men’s minds into a virtual woman’s body in an experiment that could enlighten the prejudiced and shed light on how humans distinguish themselves from others.
In a study at Barcelona University, men donned a virtual reality (VR) headset that allowed them to see and hear the world as a female character. When they looked down they could even see their new body and clothes.
The ‘body-swapping’ effect was so convincing that the men’s sense of self was transferred into the virtual woman, causing them to react reflexively to events in the virtual world in which they were immersed.
Men who took part in the experiment reported feeling as though they occupied the woman’s body and even gasped and flinched when she was slapped by another character in the virtual world.
‘This work opens up another avenue for virtual reality, which is not just to transform your sense of place, but also your sense of self,’ said Mel Slater, a virtual reality researcher at the Catalan Institute of Research and Advanced Studies and University College London. ‘There isn’t any other technology that allows you to look down and see another body that isn’t yours and give you the illusion that it is,’ he said.
‘If you can temporarily give people the illusion that their bodies are different, then the evidence suggests it also affects their behaviour and the way they think. They can have new experiences: a person who is thin can know what it’s like to be fat. A man can have an experience of what it’s like to be a woman.’”
Read more at The Guardian (thanks, Tammy)
Good idea and it’s great for the conscious awareness future…
But is being slapped in the face really a distinguishing feature for women…?
Alright. I know what people are going to say, but I would love to try this.
I much prefer this ‘soft’ approach to mindjacking as opposed to the sci-fi standard from cyberpunk novels of plugging a lead into your spinal cord. I always thought that was a high-risk approach and unlikely to take off without a real advance in nanotech antibiotics. (or something). Wonderful how adaptive the mind is.
wow, how being-john-malkovich!
Haha, that sounds interesting. Would definitely have a go at this!
T.B. – I think the being slapped was mostly to see if the men reacted physically to something that only happened in VR as if it were happening to them in real life, not so much because being slapped is a typical female thing.
Why was she slapped? Was she out of the kitchen? Before you think that’s sexist, that is the reaction I wanted to get from you. This can easily teach folks about things that others may experience and hopefully allow one to be more understand about the situations of others.
Hmmm, i can imagine some things i would like to try out…intruiging…
Sounds like a game lots of people would love to play. Not only female bodies ofcourse, female will not dislike being in a male’s body.
But also .. I think those who thought more about the differences between people and tried to understand the others will have a pretty good feeling about most things already. But for those who are more into experiencing it as it sort of can be done with VR .. might help. Although most will mainly see the fun part of it .. and sill will not see it from another self but from another part of their own self. Which can be triggered, and will be triggered, more often without having to be in another body.
Lots probably love to be an animal .. a bird .. a predator .. a horse ..
Life is kinda VR at times as well .. if you think of it ..
Oh, it reminds me a bit of The Zombies .. with Brown .. you know ..
OOh I want a go on that if they could give me a virtual man’s body.
That definitely would be the BEST ride at the funfair !
Everyone seems to be missing part of this article.
They see their virtual self getting slapped and flinch, and researchers say it is astonishing.
But it says to reinforce the sense of connection, they had someone stroke them while the virtual body is stroked.
There\’s every chance that they flinched because they thought they would also be slapped as the virtual body was slapped.
I\’ve heard lots of examples of people being virtually projected onto artificial limbs and bodies through perceptive reinforcement but I think this is the least interesting iteration of the idea yet…
Reminds me of the ‘point of view’ gun from the recent “Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” movie… I had no idea someone was actually working on it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh8R7MwtVC0&feature=related