Facilitation of affection by tactile feedback of false heratbeat

Abstract

When a person is attracted to someone, characteristic physiological responses are observed, such as flush and perspiration. Our goal was to control this affective feeling by using artificial autonomous physiological reactions. To achieve this goal, we used vibration to simulate a heartbeat on subjects' chest with a voice-coil type actuator and controlled the frequency of the false heartbeat. In this study, we verify that the preference towards female nude photos was increased by modulating the frequency of the false heartbeat. We also discuss the suitable implementation of our method in applications such as movie viewing and daily communication.