ArticleFrontiers in psychology2018
Virtually Being Einstein Results in an Improvement in Cognitive Task Performance and a Decrease in Age Bias.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07283523 (The Use of Virtual Reality to Combat Weight-Based Implicit Bias Among Physicians in Training at Brigham and Women's Hospital), which is not on this map. Cited by 39 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Use of Virtual Reality to Combat Weight-Based Implicit Bias Among Physicians in Training at Brigham and Women's Hospital: A Pilot Study
Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- EEG biomarkers of the sense of embodiment: methodological gaps and evidence-based recommendations from a systematic review.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2026Pooled it
- The use of virtual reality in studying prejudice and its reduction: A systematic review.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Technological Competence Is a Pre-condition for Effective Implementation of Virtual Reality Head Mounted Displays in Human Neuroscience: A Technological Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2019Pooled it
- Neuroendocrine Response and State Anxiety Due to Psychosocial Stress Decrease after a Training with Subject's Own (but Not Another) Virtual Body: An RCT Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- A self-administered virtual reality intervention increases COVID-19 vaccination intention.Vaccine · 2021Trial
- Attribution of Selfhood Based on Simple Behavioral Cues: Toward a Pars-Pro-Toto Account.Cognitive science · 2026Article
- Non-immersive robot teleoperation does not reliably affect egocentric dishonesty but can influence altruistic dishonesty.iScience · 2026Article
- Can avatar affective valence determine whether virtual reality embodiment reduces implicit workplace ageism?Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Body-technology interfaces: digital corporeality and emerging psychopathology.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Self-dialogue with age-congruent versus age-incongruent avatars in immersive virtual reality.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Sound effects on body perception vary with the social support network of individuals.iScience · 2025Article
- Transition ability to safe states reduces fear responses to height.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Feedback from an avatar facilitates risk-taking by modulating the amygdala response to feedback uncertainty.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- The visuomotor synchronization immersive virtual reality of a depression avatar in a stigma context experience mobilizes the fronto-parietal cortex and anterior insula.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- A theoretical review of the Proteus effect: understanding the underlying processes.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
- Michelangelo Effect in Virtual Sculpturing: Prospective for Motor Neurorehabilitation in the Metaverse.Journal of cognition · 2024Article
- Ownership of the affected leg is further reduced following deceptive behaviors in body integrity dysphoria.iScience · 2023Article
- Boosting Creativity through Users' Avatars and Contexts in Virtual Environments-A Systematic Review of Recent Research.Journal of Intelligence · 2023Review
- The effect of simulated natural environments in virtual reality and 2D video to reduce stress.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- A future orientation intervention delivered through a smartphone application and virtual reality: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.BMC psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The brain's body representation is amenable to rapid change, even though we tend to think of our bodies as relatively fixed and stable. For example, it has been shown that a life-sized body perceived in virtual reality as substituting the participant's real body, can be felt as if it were their own, and that the body type can induce perceptual, attitudinal and behavioral changes. Here we show that changes can also occur in cognitive processing and specifically, executive functioning. Fifteen male participants were embodied in a virtual body that signifies super-intelligence (Einstein) and 15 in a (Normal) virtual body of similar age to their own. The Einstein body participants performed better on a cognitive task than the Normal body, considering prior cognitive ability (IQ), with the improvement greatest for those with low self-esteem. Einstein embodiment also reduced implicit bias against older people. Hence virtual body ownership may additionally be used to enhance executive functioning.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.