Using self-similarity from body motion to reduce outgroup biases

Recent proposals, including the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate at UCLA, urge academics to collaborate across disciplines to help reduce internalized prejudices and hate. Our proposal aims to augment these efforts by combining multidisciplinary expertise in neuroscience and psychology with the tools of film and design media to focus on the understudied, subtler mechanisms conveyed by body motion that contribute to social identity. We propose to test whether implicit biases can be reduced if actions of outgroup members reflect one’s own motion (i.e., self-motion similarity), and assess the underlying neural mechanisms. We will use advances in motion capture and virtual reality (VR) to render body motion patterns of outgroup individuals more similar to oneself during social interactions. We will further measure the neural correlates of self-similarity from motion using brain imaging and stimulation. Findings from this project will help better understand the mechanisms for implicit bias reduction and generate knowledge for interventions aimed at mitigating internalized biases using motion-based paradigms.