The cyranoid concept originated in the late 1970s with psychologist Stanley Milgram, who developed the idea as a means of operationalizing the mind–body fusion fantasy explored in Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac.
[2] In the story, Cyrano (a romantic but unattractive poet) supplies Christian (a handsome but inarticulate cadet) with amorous prose so that they may jointly woo Roxane (each being incapable, given their respective limitations, of doing so on their own).
Among other things, therefore, the cyranoid method serves as a means of exploring phenomena such as racial, gender, and age-based stereotyping, as one can dynamically test how a single source is perceived and interacted with differently on the basis of their communicating through a variety of physically-differentiated source-types.
[5][6][7] Robb Mitchell has explored cyranoids as an experiential learning tool within the classroom (having children shadow for teachers during teaching exercises).
[11] The cyranoid and echoborg methods can be used to mix and match bodies and cognition sources opening up a broad range of research questions.