I thought that it would be prudent to include here what I said to undermind:
I don’t think that this is a case of empathy because, as I mentioned in my conversation with him below, some subjects reported mistaking the rubber hand for their ‘real’ hand:
Some subjects reported that the illusion was so convincing that they found themselves wondering why their hand was so white or how they had bruised their hand (there was a small ink smudge on the fake hand).
Some subjects also withdraw their ‘real’ hand from the experimenter as if it were at risk of injury:
[D]uring pilot work many subjects behaved as if they anticipated pain when the rubber finger was bent back: they laughed nervously, widely opened their eyes, flinched, and even pulled their real hand away from the experimenter (sufficient instruction prevented subject noise and movement during the experiments reported here).
I thought that it would be prudent to include here what I said to undermind: