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Body size influences how people view the world

Your size may influence how you perceive the world around you.

Body size influences how people view the world

Your size may influence how you perceive the world around you.

Current understanding says that our perception of size and distance is a product of how the brain interprets different visual cues, such as the size of an object on the retina and its movement across the visual field. Some researchers have claimed that our bodies also influence our perception of the world, so that the taller you are, the shorter distances appear to be. However, there has been no way of testing this hypothesis experimentally.

The study shows for the first time that the size of our bodies has a profound effect on how we perceive the space around us.

Researchers in Sweden conducted a study in which they created the illusion in people that they had a very small Barbie doll-sized body or were very large, 13-foot tall giants. The perception of space was assessed by having subjects estimate the size of different blocks and then walk over to the blocks with their eyes shut. The illusion of having a small body caused an overestimation of size and distance, an effect that was reversed for large bodies. Tiny bodies perceive the world as huge, and vice versa.

One strategy that the brain uses to judge size is through comparison - if a person stands beside a tree it computes the size of both. However, the sensed own body seems to serve as a fundamental reference that affects this and other visual mechanisms. Even though we know just how large people are, the illusion makes us perceive other people as giants.

The researchers pointed out that their findings might contribute to certain practical applications, such as swapping human bodies with artificial ones. It's possible, in theory, to produce an illusion of being a microscopic robot that can carry out operations in the human body, or a giant robot repairing a nuclear power plant after an accident.
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