The strange power of a virtual body swap.
Ordinary people who are made to feel like the great physicist Albert Einstein in virtual reality do get smarter.
Those with low self-esteem respond particularly well to being ’embodied’ as Einstein by showing the greatest improvements on cognitive tests.
People with low self-esteem likely have the most to gain by seeing themselves in a better light.
Imagining yourself as someone brilliant may unlock previously untapped cognitive resources.
Professor Mel Slater, study co-author, explained:
“Virtual reality can create the illusion of a virtual body to substitute your own, which is called virtual embodiment.
In an immersive virtual environment, participants can see this new body reflected in a mirror and it exactly matches their movements, helping to create a powerful illusion that the virtual body is their own.”
Having a virtual body different to your own can have striking psychological effects.
In one previous study, white people given a virtual black body showed less stereotyping of black people.
Professor Slater said:
“We wondered whether virtual embodiment could affect cognition.
If we gave someone a recognizable body that represents supreme intelligence, such as that of Albert Einstein, would they perform better on a cognitive task than people given a normal body?”
For the study, 30 young men took part in the virtual embodiment experiment.
Those who saw themselves as Einstein had a reduced unconscious stereotype against older people.
Those with low self-esteem saw the greatest improvements in their cognitive skills.
Professor Slater concluded:
“It is possible that this technique might help people with low self-esteem to perform better in cognitive tasks and it could be useful in education,”
The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology (Banakou et al., 2018).
