Mind Hacks

Hack #58. Watch Yourself to Feel More

Looking at your skin makes it more sensitive, even if you can’t see what it is you’re feeling. Look through a magnifying glass and it becomes even more sensitive.

The skin is the shortest-range interface we have with the world. It is the only sense that doesn’t provide any information about distant objects. If you can feel something on your skin, it is next to you right now.

Body parts exist as inward-facing objects—they provide touch information—but they also exist as external objects—we can feel them with other body parts, see them, and (if you’re lucky) feel and see those of other people. [Hack #64] and [Hack #93] explore how we use vision to update our internal model of our body parts. But the integration of the two senses goes deeper, so much so that looking at a body part enhances the sensitivity of that body part, even if you aren’t getting any useful visual information to illuminate what’s happening on your skin.

In Action

Kennett et al. ¹ tested how sensitive people were to touch on their forearms. In controlled conditions, people were asked to judge if they were feeling two tiny rods pressed against their skin or just one. The subjects made these judgments in three conditions. The first two are the most important, providing the basic comparison. Subjects were either in the dark or in the light and looking at their arm—but with a brief moment of darkness so they couldn’t actually see their arm as the pins touched it. Subjects allowed to ...