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Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation
Published on: March 1, 2017
A 'rubber-hand' illusion reveals a relationship between perceptual body image and unhealthy body change
Alexander J Mussap1, Nancy Salton
1School of Psychology, Deakin University, Australia. mussap@deakin.edu.au
Abstract:
The 'rubber-hand' illusion, in which individuals misattribute tactile sensations felt by their hand to a rubber prosthetic hand that they see being stimulated, was employed to examine the relationship between perceptual body image and unhealthy body change in 128 volunteers. Variance in unhealthy body development in males (22%) and in bulimic symptomatology in both females and males (10%), was explained by susceptibility to the illusion. The illusion, which is relatively free from cognitive and emotional 'contamination', could be used to identify individuals most responsive to therapies designed to correct inaccurate body perceptions-individuals whose perceptual body image is malleable.
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