Browsing by Author "Laukkanen, Sari"

Aims of the study. Empathic response to other person’s suffering comprises of cognitive, affective and sensory components. Seeing another person’s pain evokes similar reactions in the observer as if it were their own, which is called vicarious pain. Skin color and an ethnic group's shared characteristics of the observed person have been found to affect vicarious pain experience. Notably, research has shown that vicarious pain experience is weakened when skin color or ethnic features differ from the observer. Interventions to reduce skin color bias have been studied. However, it is unclear whether skin color bias of vicarious pain can be affected by virtual embodiment. This experiment aims to investigate the effect of virtual embodiment in skin color bias of the vicarious pain experience. Methods. 60 White participants took part in the experiment. The participants were immersed in virtual reality where they were presented with animations that portrayed an agent’s hand being touched by noxious and soft objects. The virtual agent’s skin color (black, white, violet) and participants’ virtual skin color (white, black) were manipulated between randomized trials. Participants reported painfulness and unpleasantness on a 9-point Likert scale. The association of virtual agent’s skin color on painfulness and unpleasantness and effects of virtual embodiment on skin color bias on vicarious pain was studied using multilevel models. Results and conclusions. The skin color of the observed person was found to be associated with the vicarious pain experience. Noxious touch was rated as more painful when targeted at a white person and least painful when targeted at a black person. Curiously, no association was found with virtual embodiment and skin color bias of vicarious pain experience assessed by self-reported pain assessments.