When Santa Barbara philanthropists Michael and Gail Towbes established the Towbes Graduate Fellowship at UCSB, in honor of Louis H. Towbes, Michael Towbes’ father, they not only became leaders in education, but are helping to make breakthroughs in virtual reality research. This is not to say that the research exists in the technological ether, but it is being used in cutting-edge psychology research. In her research at UCSB, psychology graduate student Christine Ma, a Towbes Fellowship awardee, brings together physiological reactions to senses of threat that are influenced by a difficult to quantify indicator: culture.

While an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, Christine learned about UCSB professor James J. Blascovich’s research in challenge and threat methodology that uses cardiovascular indices to mark distinct motivational states; as well as his use of novel virtual reality technology to study psychological phenomenon. She was inspired to use this technology as a creative tool to create a link between culture, bodily perception, and emotion. “Tapping the link between culture and the mind and body relationship at a cultural vantage point is significant in seeing if culture mediates a relationship. An individual’s values, which he has grown accustomed to during childhood, impact how he views his body. Values also relate to emotional influences affecting bodily changes perceived by different cultures,” describes Christine. This methodology differs from the methods she previously used in her research during her undergraduate studies. Blascovich’s research is one of the reasons why Christine chose to attend UCSB.

When conducting her undergraduate research, Christine found it frustrating to base her research findings on the subjects’ self-reporting due to their limitations. This is particularly problematic in her own line of research on the effects of culture on the way people react emotionally and physically, since culture can often affect their ability to convey emotions and describe their own experiences in an objective manner. Since culture tends to permeate all that a person does, basing results on individual responses are problematic, since each reaction varies according to experience and specific situations.

Moving her graduate research beyond the subjective nature of self-reporting, Christine employed a false feedback study that allows individuals to see their heart rate on an EKG monitor while watching a slideshow designed to evoke emotional responses. This EKG machine, however, is no ordinary heart rate monitor. In fact, experimenters controlled the EKG machine to allow individuals to view a false heart rate to test whether it affects an individual’s perception of their own reactions to the slideshow. Conducting an experiment on culturally European Americans and Asian Americans, experimenters gave the subjects from both cultures false readings. Viewing the same images, the culturally European Americans tended to rate the slides based on their heart rate, while Asian Americans were generally undisturbed by their heart rates and gave consistent results. However slight, there were minor emotional shifts, as Asian American men were inclined to change their feedback more frequently than Asian American women. In comparison, both culturally European men and women changed their feedback more than Asian American men and women.

Collaborating with Professor Blasvocich in studying the mind-body relationship, Christine is using virtual reality, a new research tool in the field of psychology that now can be applied to culture, to complete a follow-up study on whether Asian Americans and their emotions are directly affected by their bodily reaction. Christine and her advisor conducted an experiment in which subjects were instructed to walk across a narrow plank in a room while wearing VR goggles which streamed a video of them walking above a vast abyss. While on this plank, they meet an “avatar,” a virtual participant. The abyss was intended to raise a subject’s heart rate and induce sweaty hands; individuals who were internally aware of their bodies could tell that this bodily change was a byproduct of crossing the plank, but those who were not would misattribute their physiological arousal to the avatar. After the experiment, the subjects were asked about their attraction level to the avatar. While Asian men were highly influenced by body manipulation, culturally European men were unaffected. The results in both experiments using false feedback and virtual reality revealed that gender and culture influences the individuals’ perceptions.

The Towbes Fellowship allowed Christine the opportunity to concentrate on her research and courses. This enabled to begin her research earlier in her graduate career and in earnest with little disruption. In expressing her appreciation for the Towbes Fellowship, Christine says, “This fellowship has been above and beyond anything I could ask for. Towbes has allowed me to explore different methodologies and work with people from a variety of fields.” When Christine did begin TAing, the financial stability that the Towbes provided, made her teaching experience an opportunity to grow rather than one driven by necessity.

Although her research is on emotion and culture, Christine had the opportunity to do studies on culture with other faculty in several subjects including verbalization and attitude change. “I love the freedom and flexibility at UCSB, where you have all the space in the world to intellectually engage with other people and propose ideas that people haven’t thought of yet.” Currently, Christine is uncertain of future plans after graduate school. But one thing is for certain, she is thankful for the benefits provided by the Towbes Fellowship that has made her research experience at UCSB richer and deeper.