The body-swap illusion is defined as the illusion of having another body, in terms of ownership, agency, and location ( Ehrsson et al., 2005 Slater et al., 2010 Kilteni et al., 2012).

In the past decade, several studies have demonstrated the ability of Virtual Reality (VR) to induce body-swap illusions by altering the sense of embodiment. This representation is the sense of embodiment, which consists of three subcomponents: (i) the sense of body ownership (the sense of one’s self-attribution of a body, or self-identification) (ii) the sense of agency (the sense of causing the body’s action) and (iii) the sense of self-location (the feeling of being an entity located in a position in space and perceiving the world from that position and perspective) ( Blanke and Metzinger, 2009 Kilteni et al., 2012). The body is represented in the brain by integrating internal (e.g., memory) and external (e.g., the surrounding environment) input. This study shows that both technological issues and participants’ psychological traits are involved in the experience of the body-swap illusion in a sexual harassment scenario using 360-degree video-based VR. Multiple regression analyses showed that the sense of presence was a predictor of the three dimensions of embodiment, but specific psychological traits (i.e., low scores on machismo, high scores on difficulties expressing feelings, and high scores on perspective taking) were also predictor variables of experiencing a greater sense of location and agency in the female virtual body. Forty-four men participated in the study, and the results indicate that the 360-degree video is able to induce the body-swap illusion for location and ownership, but not for agency. In addition, the study explores whether the sense of presence and psychological trait variables related to sexual harassment (i.e., machismo, chivalry, alexithymia, empathic abilities) predict the illusion of owning the body of a female victim of sexual harassment. (2021) investigating the feasibility of 360-degree video to induce the body swap from a male’s real body to a female virtual body in a sexual harassment virtual environment. The present study is a secondary analysis of the study by Ventura et al.

However, the psychological mechanisms involved in this illusion are still unknown. Recently, 360-degree video-based Virtual Reality (VR) has been used to manipulate the sense of embodiment, generating the body-swap illusion, that is, the illusionary switch from the real body to a virtual one. The sense of embodiment refers to the set of sensations related to having (i.e., ownership), being located in (i.e., location), and controlling (i.e., agency) a virtual body.

Body swap victim interactive