Topography and relationship-specific social touching in individuals displaying body image disturbances.

Interpersonal touch is intimately related to the emotional bond between the touch giver and the touch receiver. Which bodily regions we touch in those individuals in our social network is relationship specific. Perception of interpersonal touch is altered in psychiatric disorders characterised by body image disturbances (BIDs). Here, we examined whether the 'imagined' experience of social touch in individuals with BIDs is body topography- and relationship-specific. By using an interactive media mobile App, the Virtual Touch Toolkit, high versus low levels of BIDs participants completed heatmaps of full-body virtual avatars, to indicate the body regions they find soothing/unpleasant to be touched by a loved one versus an acquaintance. Self-reports of interoceptive awareness and dysmorphic concerns were also measured. Overall, imagined touch was rated as the most soothing when received from a loved one, and also when this was delivered to 'social' body regions. The importance of the social relationship for the imagined tactile interactions was particularly evident for the high levels of BIDs group, with greater problems with interoceptive awareness predicting higher soothing touch ratings when this was received by a loved one. Despite the evidence that imagined bodily contacts between meaningful people is the most pleasant for socially acceptable bodily regions, our findings may suggest a greater sensitivity to relation-specific bodily patterns of social touch particularly in the high level of BIDs group. Heightened interoceptive awareness may also play a key role in this experience of bodily affective contacts. Future research for body-oriented therapy for BIDs is encouraged to systematically probe the efficacy of imagined social touch interaction protocols which use more plausible, ecological, scenarios where touch is delivered by loved ones and to socially acceptable bodily regions.

Social Conformity in Immersive Virtual Environments: The Impact of Agents' Gaze Behavior.

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) can induce an experience of "social presence" which can, in turn, increase social influence. Non-verbal behavior such as eye contact is an important component of human communication and, therefore, an important factor in creating social presence. This paper presents an experimental study that elaborates social influence through conformity with a group of virtual agents within an immersive virtual environment (IVE). Specifically, it investigates the impact of the agents' gaze behavior on social presence and influence. An experiment based on the Asch (1951) paradigm using two levels of agents' gaze behavior (Eye Contact condition vs. No-Eye Contact condition) was conducted. The results showed that participants conformed with the agents as they gave significantly more incorrect responses to the trials that the agents also gave an incorrect response, compared to those trials that the agents gave correct answers. However, no impact of the agents' gaze behavior on conformity was observed, even if the participants in the Eye Contact condition reported a higher sense of social presence. In addition, self-reported measures showed a number of social effects that occurred only in the eye contact condition, indicating that the agents' gaze behavior has an impact on participants' experience.

Conceptual knowledge and sensitization on Asperger's syndrome based on the constructivist approach through virtual reality.

The immense capabilities provided by virtual reality for enhancing empathy and altering social behaviors, make it possible to use virtual reality for the promotion of the understanding between individuals. A social issue that needs to be addressed is the discrimination and marginalization of people with Asperger's syndrome (AS) from the working force, stemming from the lack of recognition and justification of their oddities. In this paper, the effectiveness of a virtual reality simulation, raising awareness on this specific issue, is evaluated. Awareness is a term used in this research to refer to the combination of conceptual knowledge and sensitization on a specific issue. An experiment with between-group design has been carried out, where half of the participants used the simulation via a VR headset device and the other half was given a transcript of relevant medical articles instead. The comparison between the two groups indicates that the group which used the simulation gained more knowledge on AS than the group which used the transcript. Moreover, the parameter of sensitization indicates positive correlations with place illusion in the VR group.

A Virtual Reality Simulation of Drug Users' Everyday Life: The Effect of Supported Sensorimotor Contingencies on Empathy.

Perspective taking techniques have been used to transport people into imaginary situations and the lives of others. Virtual Reality provides an immersive way to virtually experience the lives of stigmatized by society members. Through the support of sensorimotor contingencies, people can use natural movements to view and interact with the virtual world around them. In this study, we compared a perspective-taking immersive Virtual Reality system which supports a number of sensorimotor contingencies (SC group) with a perspective-taking desktop system of the same application but without support of any sensorimotor contingencies (NSC group), to investigate the effect of the supported sensorimotor contingencies in promoting empathy and positive attitudes toward drug users. Results demonstrate a strong correlation between closeness to the drug user and empathy in the SC group. In both groups there were a within group significant change in their reported attitudes before and after their exposure. Finally, participants in the SC condition reported significantly higher levels of Place Illusion (PI), body ownership, agency and plausibility of people. Further research is needed to investigate how sensorimotor contingencies can be exploited to the fullest to be used as an effective method to induce empathy and change attitudes toward stigmatized by society people.