Wearing a virtual body and being touched on it by different gender and ethnicity avatars

The subjective experience of being touched can be drastically affected not only by bottom-up variables (e.g. stimulus intensity) but also by top-down variables (e.g.toucher‘s social characteristics). Nevertheless, the neuroscientific investigation regarding the role of these higher-order factors is limited by ethical and practical constraints. Using Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) we explored the subjective and physiological reactivity of healthy participants who wore a virtual body and observed an avatar caressing different part of it and we found that it was possible to induce vicarious feelings of touch. Here we expand previous knowledge by investigating the possible influence of gender and ethnicity of the touching avatar in modulating the experience of vicarious touch.We used IVR to substitute the participants’ real body with a virtual one. Then we collected behavioral (ratings about touch appropriateness, pleasantness, disgust, erogeneity) and physiological (skin conductance responses, heart rate) responses while Caucasian heterosexual men observed touches on different parts of their virtual body delivered by male or female Caucasian and African avatars. At the behavioral level, we found that touches on the intimate areas were rated as the least appropriate compared to the neutral and social ones. Moreover, the touches delivered by a male avatar were judged as less appropriate than those delivered by a female avatar. Furthermore, male touches in the intimate areas evoked the highest disgust sensations, while female touches in the intimate areas induced highest pleasantness and erogeneity. Interestingly, ethnicity did not induce any modulation. At the physiological level, the African male touches elicited higher reactivity compared to the Caucasian male touches when delivered on the intimate areas. Taken together, these results confirm the preference for the female touch among Caucasian heterosexual men and suggest that the role of toucher’s ethnicity may emerge in the rooted automatic responses rather than in the explicit evaluations.