Changing Bodies Changes Minds-and Behavior? An Economist's Guide to Embodiment Interventions

Nina Rapoport ()
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Nina Rapoport: AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: This review examines how virtual embodiment interventions can inform economic research on inequality across social groups. These interventions, now widely used in psychology and related disciplines, enable researchers to create the illusion of inhabiting the body of an outgroup member by systematically altering key physical characteristics of virtual bodies, such as skin-tone, gender, or age. I synthesize existing research on outgroup embodiment and provide both a practical guide to designing embodiment interventions and a critical assessment of the methodological trade-offs involved in their implementation. Finally, I outline how combining embodiment interventions with tools from experimental economics can serve two purposes: first, to advance research on social inequality across these lines by introducing new methods to study its socio-cognitive foundations; and second, to address open questions in the embodiment literature by testing whether "changing bodies" can change not only minds, but also behavior.

Keywords: Experimental economics; Discrimination; Inequality; Prejudice; Identity; Virtual reality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-01
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