The Bodily Self
Human Nature July 8, 2026 J. Verbe, Raphael H. Gautier, Marianne Latinus et al.
Social cues, even minimal ones like the mere presence of another person, can reduce how accurately people perceive their own heartbeat. In a virtual reality environment, 32 healthy adults performed a heartbeat counting task while exposed to either social or non-social visual cues. Accuracy was lower in the social condition, suggesting that attention shifts between internal bodily signals and external social information. This supports the idea that the sense of self is shaped by social context. The findings also raise methodological concerns for interoception research and may inform studies of conditions involving altered social and bodily awareness.