ArticleRoyal Society open science2020
Virtual body ownership and its consequences for implicit racial bias are dependent on social context.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The use of virtual reality in studying prejudice and its reduction: A systematic review.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Counterclockwise Virtual Reality-Based Embodiment of a Younger Self and Revisit of a Past Iconic Event in Older Adults: Between-Groups Study of Cognitive and Physical Performance.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Anticipation and prevention of real risks of virtual environments in psychiatry.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Review
- Can avatar affective valence determine whether virtual reality embodiment reduces implicit workplace ageism?Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Article
- Five canonical findings from 30 years of psychological experimentation in virtual reality.Nature human behaviour · 2025Review
- Article
- Virtual Humans in Virtual Reality Mental Health Research: Systematic Review.JMIR XR and spatial computing · 2025Review
- Editorial: Impact of virtual reality on sensory neuroscience: delving into body ownership and agency.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Embodiment in the enfacement illusion is mediated by self-other overlap.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Behavioral and neurophysiological indices of the racial bias modulation after virtual embodiment in other-race body.iScience · 2023Article
- VR for Pain Relief.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2023Article
- Using virtual reality to assess gesture performance deficits in schizophrenia patients.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- The effects of embodying wildlife in virtual reality on conservation behaviors.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Encouraging bystander helping behaviour in a violent incident: a virtual reality study using reinforcement learning.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Virtual reality for the rehabilitation and prevention of intimate partner violence - From brain to behavior: A narrative review.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- Predictors of the Sense of Embodiment of a Female Victim of Sexual Harassment in a Male Sample Through 360-Degree Video-Based Virtual Reality.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
- Disrupting the "empathy machine": The power and perils of virtual reality in addressing social issues.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- Editorial: Virtual reality and empathy.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- I can see my virtual body in a mirror: The role of visual perspective in changing implicit racial attitudes using virtual reality.Frontiers in 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
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
When people hold implicit biases against a group they typically engage in discriminatory behaviour against group members. In the context of the implicit racial bias of 'White' against 'Black' people, it has been shown several times that implicit bias is reduced after a short exposure of embodiment in a dark-skinned body in virtual reality. Embodiment usually leads to the illusion of ownership over the virtual body, irrespective of its skin colour. Previous studies have been carried out in virtual scenarios that are affectively neutral or positive. Here, we show that when the scenario is affectively negative the illusion of body ownership of White participants over a White body is lessened, and implicit bias is higher for White participants in a Black virtual body. The study was carried out with 92 White female participants, in a between-groups design with two factors: BodyType (their virtual body was White or Black) and a surrounding Crowd was Negative, Neutral or Positive towards the participant. We argue that negative affect prevents the formation of new positive associations with Black and distress leads to disownership of the virtual body. Although virtual reality is often thought of as an 'empathy machine' our results suggest caution, that this may not be universally the case.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.