Embodiment, and race.

Question 1

Intro [first line]

Answer 1

Embodied accounts of social cognition argue that body representations play an important role in socio-cognitive processing (Gallese et al, 2004)

Question 2

Intro [2nd line]

Answer 2

Neurocognitive studies into the ‘mirror neuron system’ have shown that we activate similar brain regions both when we observe a bodily state in others, and when we experience that bodily state ourselves (Rizzolatti et al ,1996).

This reflects an overlap between self and other bodily representations in the brain.

Question 3

Intro [3rd]

Answer 3

There is evidence that the more negative our implicit attitudes are towards individuals from a racial outgroup, the less overlap there is between the representation of their bodies and our own (Avenanti et al., 2010)

This has led researchers to ask: can you alter implicit racial attitudes by experimentally increasing self-other bodily overlap.

Question 4

First para: RHI?

Answer 4

One way to test this is RHI. In this paradigm, the experimentor strokes the participants real hand (out of view) and a rubber hand (in view) synchronously, to evoke the feeling that the touch sensations are arising from the embodied rubber hand. (Botty & Cohen, 1998).

Question 5

Farmer et al (2012): Base camp.

Answer 5

They conducted the RHI with black hands and white hands, in white PS.
They investigated the effect of this ownership on implicit racial bias by taking pre and post IAT scores.
- Firstly, they found induced ownership was possible despite skin colour differences.
- Notably: The stonger the ownership, the lower the post IAT score.
- No effect of skin colour: suggests a generalized embodiment effect on IAT scores.

Results suggest the possibility that embodiment alone may be suficient to reduce racism. Potentially, embodiment over any hand blurs the boundries between self and others.

However, study was within-subjects (i.e. each PS embodied white and dark subsequently) so the effects of embodying one race may be confouding the effects of embodying the other.

Question 6

Maister et al (2013):

Answer 6

Improved Farmer (2012): between subjects design which allowed them to distinguish the effect of ownership of the dark hand specifically from the overal ownership of both hands.

• Found only ownership over dark hand predicted IAT change (higher ownership -> more positive IAT scores)

This is evidence against a general effect of embodiement.

Moreover, they found that it was ownership levels, not merely synchronous stroking, that modulated attitudes.

Question 7

Peck et al (2013)

Answer 7

60 PS with a vitual body.

• full visuomotor synchony elicited in mirror
• Embodied white; black; and alien skin; and-embodied dark skinned asynchronous mover (control)

Found the embodiment by light-skinned PS of dark-skinned virtual body temporarilly reduced implicit racial bias.
- This effect was not seen for embodiment of alien body, suggesting that it is race-specific, rather than a generalized effect of embodiment.

Question 8

Groom et al (2009): yaaay!

Answer 8

Found the embodiment of dark-skinned body increased racial bias?!

However…

• No full body synchrony (only head movements)
• Very short embodiment time (60-75s)
• PS told to ‘imagine and role play a day in the life’ of embodied individual
• Importantly, they placed them in a job application situation - which is known for race discrimination (Das Gupta, 2004)

Therefore, - Increase in scores is likely to be due to the preexposure of being placed into a situation that is known for race discrimination (Blair, 2002), not due to the embodiment.

Question 9

Farmer et al (2014)

Answer 9

Extends Maister’s findings by using real black faces (rather than just skin colour change)

Found that RHI only altered IAT scores for PS who already held negative beliefs

Question 10

(Cunningham et al, 2001)

Answer 10

In order to evaluate the strength of the evidence presented here, one must consider the strength of the test used unanimously in the above studies. For example, Some researchers suggest issues with the test-retest reliability of the IAT (Cunningham et al, 2001) (R=.32). Often measurement error of the IAT can account for more than 30% of the variance. Therefore, researchers are recommended to use covariance structure modelling to account for this.
To fully validate the claims, alternative measures of implicit racism should be used.

Question 11

Banakou et al (2016)

Answer 11

FBI, visuomotor synchronoy, h
PS embodied white and black avatar
IAT taken 1 week pre and post
- Found 1 session of embodiment was enough to significantly reduce IAT scores 1 week later