Abstract In this work we propose a control architecture that leads to an intrinsically stable bilateral teleoperation system, where the telepresence of the user is improved in terms of remote force discrimination. We identify, through a set of psychophysical experiments, a variable force scaling matrix that improves the operator’s feeling of the remote environment. We show that it is possible to build a passive control scheme that embeds this perception-centric scaling. Finally, an experiment is presented to validate the results proposed in the paper.