Enfacing a female reduces the gender–science stereotype in males

Abstract

The enfacement illusion refers to the illusory perception that features of another face that moves in synchrony with one’s own facial movements become part of one’s own body. Here, we tested whether males whose facial movements are synchronized with a virtual female face exhibit a less pronounced implicit gender–science stereotype than males whose movements are not synchronized. Results show that illusory ownership and agency of the face with opposite gender was successfully induced, and that synchrony significantly reduced the implicit gender–science stereotype as compared with nonsynchrony. Our findings are in line with previous demonstrations about being synchronized with other individuals facilitates feature migration—that is, the integration of their features into one’s self-representation.