The Effects Of Stress on Body Ownership and The Rubber Hand Illusion N Cooper, J M Furlong-Silva, N O'Sullivan, M Bertamini |
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Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
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| To date, embodiment has been explored from the perspective of being a trait construct. However, intrinsic variation might exist in response to different contexts, and thus embodiment might also be studied from the perspective of being a state construct. We reasoned that stress might be one contextual variable that would induce variation in embodiment, and in this experiment, we studied the impact of stress on both objective and subjective measures of the rubber hand illusion. The rubber hand illusion was measured in participants before and after they completed the Trier Social Stress Test, under the deception that the research project was about interviewee communicative skills with regard to future employment prospects of Undergraduates. Subjective stress was measured before and after the interview. Participants who reported an increase in stress following the interview demonstrated increased proprioceptive drift towards the rubber hand, and they reported a subjectively stronger sense of the illusion following the interview. Both effects remained when trait stress was controlled for. The findings suggest that task related stress does impact on embodiment, and they point towards the rubber hand illusion as a useful paradigm within which to explore the interaction between stress and embodiment. |
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