A look into future risks: a psychosocial theoretical framework for investigating the intention to practice body hacking

Body hacking through self-implantation of electronic devices (e.g., insideables and prostheses) is an emerging risky behavior with potential negative health and safety consequences, despite the claimed potential benefits. Risks become higher in unconventional settings where self-implantations are performed without experts' risk assessment and preventive measures. To understand such behavior, it is important to identify what are the motivational factors that underlie intentions to practice body-hacking. Given the scarce literature on the subject to date, this paper presents a theoretical framework of potential motivational drivers underlying the intention towards practicing body hacking in order to help setting up priorities for future research. The potential theoretical associations between intention to practice body hacking and existential, identity, ideological, cognitive, epistemic, social affiliation, and affective drivers are discussed.