Changing your body changes your eating attitudes: embodiment of a slim virtual avatar induces avoidance of high-calorie food

Abstract

The virtual-reality full-body illusion paradigm has been suggested to not only trigger the illusory ownership of the avatar's body but also the attitudinal and behavioral components stereotypically associated to that kind of virtual body. In the present study, we investigated whether this was true for stereotypes related to body size: body satisfaction and eating control behavior. Healthy participants underwent the full-body illusion paradigm with an avatar having either a larger or a slimmer body than their own, and were assessed for implicit attitudes towards body image and food calorie content at baseline and after each full-body illusion session. Results showed that the illusion emerged regardless of the avatar's body size, whereas the perceived dimension of the own body size changed according to the avatar's body size (i.e., participants felt to be slimmer after embodying their slim avatar and larger after embodying their large avatar). Crucially, we found that implicit attitudes towards food, but not those towards one's own body, were modulated by the size of the virtual body. Compared to baseline, ownership of a slimmer avatar increased the avoidance of high-calorie food, whereas ownership of a larger avatar did not induce changes. Our findings suggest that the illusory feeling of being slimmer drives also the food-related stereotypes associated with that body size, increasing the regulation of eating behaviors.

“Tricking the Brain” Using Immersive Virtual Reality: Modifying the Self-Perception Over Embodied Avatar Influences Motor Cortical Excitability and Action Initiation

“…To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to show modulated motor brain processing associated with altered body perceptions using immersive VR. Our findings on neurophysiological effects extend previous studies reporting, for example, affective (Tajadura-Jiménez et al, 2015a), (social) cognitive (D'Angelo et al, 2019;Burin and Kawashima, 2021;Clausen et al, 2021;Tambone et al, 2021), and motor (Kilteni et al, 2013;Tajadura-Jiménez et al, 2015a effects of body illusions.…”

“…Participants reported high body ownership and agency over the avatar, independently of the condition. Our results are in line with a vast amount of research that used multisensory feedback with (Slater, 2008;Perez-Marcos et al, 2009;Kilteni et al, 2012bKilteni et al, , 2016Pyasik et al, 2020;Tambone et al, 2021) and without immersive VR (Botvinick and Cohen, 1998;Ehrsson, 2004;Petkova and Ehrsson, 2008;van der Hoort et al, 2011;Burin et al, 2017) to induce various body illusions. These findings established the view that body perceptions are continuously updated in the brain in response to sensory signals related to the body (Blanke, 2012;Tsakiris, 2017).…”

Your body, my experience: A systematic review of embodiment illusions as a function of and method to improve body image disturbance

“…Twenty-four studies examined the effect of embodiment illusions on BID using perceptual and/or cognitive-affective measures. Twenty (83.33%) observed small to large-sized (predominately medium to large-sized) improvements post-embodiment (Carey & Preston, 2019; Ferrer-Garcia et al, 2018; Keizer et al, 2014; 2016; Lin et al, 2021; Liu et al, 2022; Malighetti et al, 2021; Neyret et al, 2020; Piryankova et al, 2014; Porras-Garcia et al, 2019; 2021; Preston & Ehrsson, 2014; 2018; Scarpina et al, 2019; Serino et al, 2016; 2017; 2020; Tambone et al, 2021; Themelis et al, 2021; Wolf et al, 2021). Of these 20, five also reported negative modifications (i.e., a more negative rating on a cognitive-affective scale or increased body size estimation/misestimation), generally involving medium or large-sized effects (Ferrer-Garcia et al, 2018; Lin et al, 2021; Preston & Ehrsson, 2018; Tambone et al, 2021; Themelis et al, 2021).…”

“…Two stimulated the hand alone and produced small to large-sized improvements (Carey & Preston, 2019;Keizer et al, 2014). The remaining nine studies stimulated multiple regions simultaneously (e.g., hand, arms, legs), generally producing medium or large-sized improvements (Ferrer-Garcia et al, 2018;Lin et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2022;Malighetti et al, 2021;Piryankova et al, 2014;Porras-Garcia et al, 2019;2021;Themelis et al, 2021;Wolf et al, 2021).…”

Knowing the intention behind limb movements of a partner increases embodiment towards the limb of joint avatar

“…Future cyberspaces and virtual societies such as the “metaverse” are expected to weaken the concepts of race, gender, and physical disability 27 . Virtual embodiment enables us to feel an illusory body ownership towards avatars in different skin color 28 , gender 29 , and size 30 , bodies that are invisible or transparent 31 – 35 , and non-human agents 36 and animals 37 . We are interested in the idea of minimizing physical disabilities of users in the virtual worlds through specially designed virtual avatars 38 .…”