The idea that a tiny change in a number on a screen can affect how your own body feels is almost unsettling. Not in a symbolic sense. in a physical sense. Depending on what the sensor attached to your forearm chooses to tell you, the box you are holding becomes heavier or lighter. For years, a group of researchers at Ritsumeikan University in Kusatsu, Japan, have been subtly testing this theory. Although their findings are small in scope, they raise issues that seem more significant than the experiment itself.
The Unconscious Load Changer project is headed by Kyosuke Futami, Tomoya Seki, and Kazuya Murao. Although the implications are not obvious, the premise is. Put an electromyography sensor on someone’s arm, display a real-time readout of their own muscle activity, and then subtly move that number up or down. The majority of participants changed their perception of effort to match the lie, the researchers discovered. They felt a heavier load if the screen indicated that they were working harder. The same dumbbell felt suddenly more manageable if it indicated they were working less.
It’s the kind of discovery that sounds almost too neat. Nevertheless, the researchers describe it with caution—almost caution. The majority of participants gave expected answers. A minority perceived the load in reverse and went in the opposite direction. That particular detail is important. It’s the kind of flaws that give the piece a genuine, unpackaged feel.
For many years, sensor feedback has been used. It is used by physical therapists. It is used by athletes. In clinics in Boston, Munich, and Tokyo, stroke survivors watch graphs that rise and fall as they attempt to contract a specific muscle. Generally speaking, it has been assumed that the feedback is a mirror. It displays what’s going on. According to the Futami team, the mirror has been subtly reshaping the space all along, but no one was fully aware of how much.
This has precedent in related fields. Similar results have been found in studies on heart rate feedback. Even if the number is made up, tell someone that their anxiety frequently rises in tandem with their pulse. It appears that the body is influenced by the tools used to measure it. It is difficult not to wonder how many of our purportedly objective wearables are engaging in more subtle forms of persuasion than we were aware of as this field of study develops.
The potential uses are clear and, at the same time, a little awkward. It is possible to persuade a rehab patient to exert a little more effort by making the task seem easier than it actually is. One could push a weary factory worker toward a second wind at hour seven. That’s the hopeful interpretation. One who is pessimistic writes for themselves. Fatigue could be just as easily concealed by a warehouse system until something breaks. An athlete may be pushed past a threshold by a coach that they are unable to truly sense. This is acknowledged by the researchers themselves, who, unusually for a paper of this type, list both the beneficial and the detrimental possibilities in the same sentence.
One thing that sticks out when reading the work is how easy it would be to deploy. The sensors are inexpensive. There are displays everywhere. The trick is psychological rather than technological, and anyone who has perused an attention-grabbing feed will attest to the ease with which psychology can be exploited. This research, as modest as it seems in a journal abstract, seems to be hinting at a door that someone will eventually open. It’s still unclear at this point whether it’s for a good or bad purpose.
