The voluntary control of piloerection

, , , ,
1 Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
2 Department of quantitative psychology and individual differences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
3 Department of psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, United States
4 Department of psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.26594v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Anatomy and Physiology, Psychiatry and Psychology
Keywords
voluntary piloerection, emotion, personality, openness to experience, absorption, autonomic physiology, psychophyisology
Copyright
© 2018 Heathers et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Heathers JA, Fayn K, Silvia PJ, Tiliopoulos N, Goodwin MS. 2018. The voluntary control of piloerection. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26594v1

Abstract

Autonomic systems in the human body are named for their operation outside of conscious control. One rare exception is voluntarily generated piloerection (VGP) – the conscious ability to cause goosebumps – whose physiological study in scientific history is confined to three single-individual case studies. Almost nothing is known about the physiological nature and emotional correlates of this ability. The current manuscript investigates the physiological, personality, and emotional phenomenology of a sample of thirty two individuals capable of VGP. Physiological descriptions were consistent with previous reports, describing a consistent stereotypical pattern of sensation and action. Most participants reported VGP was accompanied by psychological states that typically accompany involuntary piloerection (e.g. absorption), and using VGP during activities that elicit involuntary piloerection (e.g. music). Compared to previously collected samples, participants reported significantly higher openness to experience, and absorption in response to aesthetic situations. These preliminary findings suggest that this rare and unusual physiological ability has strong emotional and personality correlates.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

This file contains the data dictionary that goes with the dataset

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.26594v1/supp-2