Immersive virtual reality enables people to undergo the experience of owning an artificial body and vicariously feeling tactile stimuli delivered to it. However, it is currently unknown how such experiences are modified by the sexual congruency between the human and the artificial agent. In two studies, heterosexual men (Experiment 1) and women (Experiment 2) embodied same-sex and opposite-sex avatars and were asked to evaluate the experience (e.g., pleasantness, erogeneity) of being touched on social or intimate areas of their virtual body by a male or female avatar. Electrocardiogram and galvanic skin response were also recorded. Moreover, participants’ implicit and explicit gender biases were examined via a gender-potency implicit association test and the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory. When embodying a same-sex avatar, men and women rated caresses on intimate areas from an avatar of the opposite sex as more pleasant and erogenous. Conversely, body swap—i.e., wearing an opposite-sex avatar—enhanced participants’ perceptions of pleasantness and erogeneity for caresses on intimate areas from a same-sex toucher. This effect was stronger in men than in women. Furthermore, physiological correlates of enhanced processing of arousing stimuli predicted behavioral outcomes during the body swap illusion. Wearing an opposite-sex avatar affects one’s own body representations and may have important implications on people’s attitudes and implicit reactivity to touch-mediated interactions. Men seem more susceptible to this type of body swap illusion. Our paradigm may induce profound changes of cross-sex perspective-taking and provide novel tools for promoting empathy and comprehension of sex-related diversity.

身临其境的虚拟现实使人们能够体验拥有一个人造身体并替代地感受传递给它的触觉刺激的体验。然而，目前尚不清楚人类和人工代理之间的性一致性如何改变这种体验。在两项研究中，异性恋男性（实验 1）和女性（实验 2）体现了同性和异性化身，并被要求评估在他们的虚拟社交或私密区域被触摸的体验（例如，愉快、性感）身体由男性或女性化身。还记录了心电图和皮肤电反应。此外，参与者的内隐和外显性别偏见通过性别潜能内隐关联测试和矛盾性别歧视量表进行检查。化身同性化身时，男性和女性认为异性化身对私密区域的爱抚更令人愉悦和性感。相反，身体交换——即穿着异性化身——增强了参与者对来自同性接触者的亲密区域的爱抚的愉悦感和性欲的感知。这种效应在男性身上比在女性身上更强。此外，增强对唤醒刺激的处理的生理相关性预测了身体交换错觉期间的行为结果。穿着异性化身会影响一个人自己的身体表现，并可能对人们的态度和对触摸介导的互动的内隐反应产生重要影响。男性似乎更容易受到这种身体交换错觉的影响。