Getting closer: Synchronous interpersonal multisensory stimulation increases closeness and attraction toward an opposite-sex other in female participants.

Getting closer: Synchronous interpersonal multisensory stimulation increases closeness and attraction toward an opposite-sex other in female participants.
Conscious Cogn. 2019 Nov 14;77:102849
Authors: Quintard V, Jouffre S, Paladino MP, Bouquet CA
Abstract
Experiencing tactile facial stimulation while seeing synchronous stimulations delivered to another's face induces enfacement, i.e. the subjective experience of ownership over the other's face. The synchronous Interpersonal Multisensory Stimulation (IMS) procedure leading to enfacement induces changes beyond the bodily sense of self, such as increased feeling of closeness between self and other. However, evidence for such an influence of IMS on higher-level self-other representations remains limited. Moreover, research has been restricted to settings involving a same-sex other. The current study tested, in female participants, whether IMS could promote social closeness and attraction toward an opposite-sex other. Across two experiments, enfacement with an opposite-sex face was successfully obtained. Synchronous (vs. asynchronous) IMS yielded greater closeness with the other and induced greater Liking and Attraction scores. These novel findings add further evidence to the existence of a link between body representation and social cognition. Implications for interpersonal attraction are discussed.
PMID: 31734585 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Consciousness and Cognition - November 13, 2019 Category: Neurology Authors: Quintard V, Jouffre S, Paladino MP, Bouquet CA Tags: Conscious Cogn Source Type: research