Effects of body ownership illusion during exposure to disgusting stimuli

•A rubber hand can successfully be embodied after synchronous stroking, leading to increased feelings of disgust when contaminated. The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) refers to the feeling of ownership of a rubber hand by synchronously stroking the rubber hand and the own hand of a person. Previous research has shown that RHI can be used to simulate skin contact with a disgust-eliciting stimulus. We used a primary disgust elicitor (a living maggot) to replicate this finding and to gather data on disgust habituation during RHI, and effects on in-vivo exposure. A total of 82 healthy participants (25 males, 57 females) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions; synchronous stroking or asynchronous stroking (control condition) of the rubber/own hand. Subsequently, a maggot was placed on the rubber hand for five minutes. Participants rated experienced disgust at the beginning and end of the exposure. They were also asked if the maggot could be placed on their own hand. Synchronous stroking successfully elicited RHI, which was associated with higher disgust ratings for the maggot at the beginning of exposure compared to asynchronous stroking. The two conditions did not differ in disgust habituation and the willingness to expose the own hand to the maggot. RHI successfully simulated skin contact with a disgust stimulus. Future studies should apply longer exposure intervals and test individuals with higher disgust propensity to detect possible RHI effects on disgust habituation.