The social softness illusion (i.e., the tendency to perceive another person's skin as softer than our own) is thought to promote the sharing of social-emotional experiences because of the rewarding properties of receiving and giving social affective touch. Here we investigated whether the ability to distinguish someone else’s body from our own modulates the social softness illusion. In particular, we tested whether the spatial perspective taken by the participants and seeing or not the touched arms could alter this illusion. Pairs of female participants were assigned the roles of either the giver (i.e., delivering the touches) or the receiver (i.e., being touched). We manipulated the location of the touch (palm or forearm), the spatial perspective of the receiver’s body with respect to the giver’s body (egocentric or allocentric perspective), and the vision of the touched body part (the giver could either see both her own and the receiver’s body part, or she was blindfolded). Consistently with previous findings, the skin of another person was perceived as softer than the own one. Additionally, the illusion was present for both the forearm and the palm, and it was stronger in allocentric compared to the egocentric perspective (i.e., when the self-other distinction was clearer). These findings show that the mechanisms underpinning the ability to represent another person’s body as distinct from our own modulates the social softness illusion, and thus support the role of the social softness illusion in fostering social relationships.

社会柔软错觉（即认为他人的皮肤比我们自己柔软的倾向）被认为促进了社会情感体验的分享，因为接受和给予社会情感接触的奖励特性。在这里，我们研究了区分他人身体和自己身体的能力是否会调节社会柔软错觉。特别是，我们测试了参与者所采取的空间视角以及看到与否被触摸的手臂是否可以改变这种错觉。成对的女性参与者被分配了给予者（即，传递触摸）或接收者（即，被触摸）的角色。我们操纵了触摸的位置（手掌或前臂），接收者身体相对于给予者身体的空间视角（以自我为中心或以自我为中心的视角），以及被触摸的身体部位的视觉（给予者可以同时看到她自己和接受者的身体部位，或者她被蒙住了眼睛）。与之前的发现一致，另一个人的皮肤被认为比自己的皮肤更柔软。此外，前臂和手掌都存在这种错觉，与以自我为中心的观点相比（即，当自我-他者的区别更清晰时），这种错觉在异中心的情况下更为强烈。这些发现表明，支持将另一个人的身体与我们自己的身体不同的能力的机制调节了社会柔软错觉，从而支持了社会柔软错觉在促进社会关系中的作用。与之前的发现一致，另一个人的皮肤被认为比自己的皮肤更柔软。此外，前臂和手掌都存在这种错觉，与以自我为中心的观点相比（即，当自我-他者的区别更清晰时），这种错觉在异中心的情况下更为强烈。这些发现表明，支持将另一个人的身体与我们自己的身体不同的能力的机制调节了社会柔软错觉，从而支持了社会柔软错觉在促进社会关系中的作用。与之前的发现一致，另一个人的皮肤被认为比自己的皮肤更柔软。此外，前臂和手掌都存在这种错觉，与以自我为中心的观点相比，这种错觉在以自我为中心的观点更为强烈（即，当自我-他者的区别更清晰时）。这些发现表明，支持将另一个人的身体与我们自己的身体不同的能力的机制调节了社会柔软错觉，从而支持了社会柔软错觉在促进社会关系中的作用。