| dc.description.abstract | Body swap illusions, for example when embodying an avatar of a racial outgroup in Virtual Reality, have been shown to affect implicit attitudes towards the embodied group. This effect is theorized to occur through a change in the perception of one’s own body, one’s self-concept, and social cognition. Bodily illusions can also change the perception of one’s own body. For example, altering footstep sounds can change one’s perceived body weight and self-reported feelings of masculinity and femininity. However, the effect of illusions of one’s own body on the self-concept and social cognition has not yet been explored. Such consideration is necessary to improve our theoretical understanding of the connection between body perception and social cognition. Therefore, I conduct two experiments. In the first experiment involving 26 cisgender females, I investigated the effect of real-time alteration of footstep sounds on perceived masculinity and femininity, self-gender association, and the relation to gender groups. Participants reported feeling more feminine and lighter, and perceiving themselves to be closer to the group of women directly after walking with feminine sounding footsteps. In a second experiment involving 26 cisgender males, men also reported feeling more feminine after walking with feminine sounding footsteps and associated themselves relatively stronger with the category ‘female’ in an Implicit Association Task. These findings provide evidence for the potential of footstep sounds to temporarily alter gender identity and for a connection between bodily experiences and the self-concept. | |
