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Cracco E, Liepelt R, Brass M, Genschow O. Top-Down Modulation of Motor Priming by Belief About Animacy. Exp Psychol 2023; 70:355-365. [PMID: 38602116 DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000605] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/12/2024]
Abstract
Research has shown that people automatically imitate others and that this tendency is stronger when the other person is a human compared with a nonhuman agent. However, a controversial question is whether automatic imitation is also modulated by whether people believe the other person is a human. Although early research supported this hypothesis, not all studies reached the same conclusion and a recent meta-analysis found that there is currently neither evidence in favor nor against an influence of animacy beliefs on automatic imitation. One of the most prominent studies supporting such an influence is the study by Liepelt and Brass (2010), who found that automatic imitation was stronger when participants believed an ambiguous, gloved hand to be human, as opposed to wooden. In this registered report, we provide a high-powered replication of this study (N = 199). In contrast to Liepelt and Brass (2010), we did not find an effect of animacy beliefs on automatic imitation. However, we did find a correlation between automatic imitation and perceived self-other similarity. Together, these results suggest that the gloved hand procedure does not reliably influence automatic imitation, but interindividual differences in perceived similarity do.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emiel Cracco
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
| | - Roman Liepelt
- Department of General Psychology: Judgment, Decision Making, Action, Faculty of Psychology, FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany
| | - Marcel Brass
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
| | - Oliver Genschow
- Department of Cognitive, Social- and Economic Psychology, Institute for Management and Organization, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany
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Boukarras S, Era V, Aglioti SM, Candidi M. Competence-based social status and implicit preference modulate the ability to coordinate during a joint grasping task. Sci Rep 2021; 11:5321. [PMID: 33674640 PMCID: PMC7935999 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-84280-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2020] [Accepted: 02/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies indicate that social status influences people's social perceptions. Less information is available about whether induced social status influences dyadic coordination during motor interactions. To explore this issue, we designed a study in which two confederates obtained high or low competence-based status by playing a game together with the participant, while the participant always occupied the middle position of the hierarchy. Following this status-inducing phase, participants were engaged in a joint grasping task with the high- and low-status confederates in different sessions while behavioural (i.e., interpersonal asynchrony and movement start time) indexes were measured. Participants' performance in the task (i.e., level of interpersonal asynchrony) when interacting with the low-status partner was modulated by their preference for him. The lower participants' preference for a low- relative to a high-status confederate, the worse participants' performance when interacting with the low-status confederate. Our results show that participants' performance during motor interactions changes according to the social status of the interaction partner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Boukarras
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
- Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
| | - Vanessa Era
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
- Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
| | - Salvatore Maria Aglioti
- Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
- Sapienza University of Rome and CNLS@Sapienza Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome, Italy
| | - Matteo Candidi
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
- Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
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Dissociable effects of averted "gaze" on the priming of bodily representations and motor actions. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2021; 212:103225. [PMID: 33260014 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2020] [Revised: 11/12/2020] [Accepted: 11/17/2020] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Gaze direction is an important stimulus that signals key details about social (dis)engagement and objects in our physical environment. Here, we explore how gaze direction influences the perceiver's processing of bodily information. Specifically, we examined how averted versus direct gaze modifies the operation of effector-centered representations (i.e., specific fingers) versus movement-centered representations (i.e., finger actions). Study 1 used a stimulus-response compatibility paradigm that tested the priming of a relevant effector or relevant movement, after observing videos of direct or averted gaze. We found a selective priming of relevant effectors, but only after averted gaze videos. Study 2 found similar priming effects with symbolic direction cues (averted arrows). Study 3 found that averted gaze cues do not influence generic spatial compatibility effects, and thus, are specific to body representations. In sum, this research suggests that both human and symbolic averted cues selectively prime relevant body-part representations, highlighting the dynamic interplay between our bodies, minds, and environments.
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Farmer H, Mahmood R, Gregory SEA, Tishina P, Hamilton AFDC. Dynamic emotional expressions do not modulate responses to gestures. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2021; 212:103226. [PMID: 33310344 PMCID: PMC7755647 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2020] [Revised: 10/08/2020] [Accepted: 10/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The tendency to imitate the actions of others appears to be a fundamental aspect of human social interaction. Emotional expressions are a particularly salient form of social stimuli (Vuilleumier & Schwartz, 2001) but their relationship to imitative behaviour is currently unclear. In this paper we report the results of five studies which investigated the effect of a target's dynamic emotional stimuli on participants' tendency to respond compatibly to the target's actions. Experiment one examined the effect of dynamic emotional expressions on the automatic imitation of opening and closing hand movements. Experiment two used the same basic paradigm but added gaze direction as an additional factor. Experiment three investigated the effect of dynamic emotional expressions on compatibility responses to handshakes. Experiment four investigated whether dynamic emotional expressions modulated response to valenced social gestures. Finally, experiment five compared the effects of dynamic and static emotional expressions on participants' automatic imitation of finger lifting. Across all five studies we reliably elicited a compatibility effect however, none of the studies found a significant modulating effect of emotional expression. This null effect was also supported by a random effects meta-analysis and a series of Bayesian t-tests. Nevertheless, these results must be caveated by the fact that our studies had limited power to detect effect sizes below d = 0.4. We conclude by situating our findings within the literature, suggesting that the effect of emotional expressions on automatic imitation is, at best, minimal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Harry Farmer
- School of Human Sciences, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom; Institute of Lifecourse Development, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, United Kingdom.
| | - Raqeeb Mahmood
- Department of Psychology, University of Bath, United Kingdom
| | | | - Polina Tishina
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, United Kingdom
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Boukarras S, Era V, Aglioti SM, Candidi M. Modulation of preference for abstract stimuli following competence-based social status primes. Exp Brain Res 2019; 238:193-204. [PMID: 31832705 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-019-05702-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2019] [Accepted: 11/27/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
In the present study, we measured whether competence-related high and low social status attributed to two unknown individuals affects participants' implicit reactivity to abstract stimuli associated to the identity of the same individuals. During a status-inducing procedure, participants were asked to play an interactive game with two (fake) players coded as high vs low status based on their game competence. Before and after the game, a modified version of the Affective Misattribution Procedure (AMP) was administered in which the players' faces were used as primes. The evaluation target, as is typical to AMP, was a Chinese ideogram. There were two different presentation timings for the prime image: 75 ms and 17 ms. After the status-inducing procedure, the evaluation targets preceded by the high-status prime (i.e. best player's face) were rated as more pleasant than those preceded by the low-status prime (i.e. worst player's face). This effect was only found, however, for the 75 ms lasting prime. Moreover, explicit ratings of the primes showed that the high-status player was rated as more intelligent, competent and dominant than the low status one. These results indicate that implicit preference and explicit evaluation of unacquainted individuals are rapidly modulated by competence-based social status attribution, thus hinting at the plastic nature of social categorization and, relatedly, the malleability of visual preference.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Boukarras
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy. .,IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.
| | - Vanessa Era
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy.,IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
| | - Salvatore Maria Aglioti
- IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy. .,Sapienza University of Rome and CNLS@Sapienza Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy.
| | - Matteo Candidi
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy.,IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
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The Mimicry Among Us: Intra- and Inter-Personal Mechanisms of Spontaneous Mimicry. JOURNAL OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s10919-019-00324-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Abstract
This review explores spontaneous mimicry in the context of three questions. The first question concerns the role of spontaneous mimicry in processing conceptual information. The second question concerns the debate whether spontaneous mimicry is driven by simple associative processes or reflects higher-order processes such as goals, intentions, and social context. The third question addresses the implications of these debates for understanding atypical individuals and states. We review relevant literature and argue for a dynamic, context-sensitive role of spontaneous mimicry in social cognition and behavior. We highlight how the modulation of mimicry is often adaptive but also point out some cases of maladaptive modulations that impair an individuals’ engagement in social life.
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Cracco E, Genschow O, Radkova I, Brass M. Automatic imitation of pro- and antisocial gestures: Is implicit social behavior censored? Cognition 2018; 170:179-189. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.09.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2017] [Revised: 09/26/2017] [Accepted: 09/28/2017] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Genschow O, van Den Bossche S, Cracco E, Bardi L, Rigoni D, Brass M. Mimicry and automatic imitation are not correlated. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0183784. [PMID: 28877197 PMCID: PMC5587324 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183784] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2017] [Accepted: 08/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
It is widely known that individuals have a tendency to imitate each other. However, different psychological disciplines assess imitation in different manners. While social psychologists assess mimicry by means of action observation, cognitive psychologists assess automatic imitation with reaction time based measures on a trial-by-trial basis. Although these methods differ in crucial methodological aspects, both phenomena are assumed to rely on similar underlying mechanisms. This raises the fundamental question whether mimicry and automatic imitation are actually correlated. In the present research we assessed both phenomena and did not find a meaningful correlation. Moreover, personality traits such as empathy, autism traits, and traits related to self- versus other-focus did not correlate with mimicry or automatic imitation either. Theoretical implications are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oliver Genschow
- Social Cognition Center Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | | | - Emiel Cracco
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Lara Bardi
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Davide Rigoni
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Marcel Brass
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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van Schaik JE, Sacheli LM, Bekkering H, Toni I, Aglioti SM. Measuring mimicry: general corticospinal facilitation during observation of naturalistic behaviour. Eur J Neurosci 2017; 46:1828-1836. [DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2016] [Revised: 05/25/2017] [Accepted: 06/01/2017] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- J. E. van Schaik
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior; Radboud University Nijmegen; Montessorilaan 3 Nijmegen 6525HR The Netherlands
| | - L. M. Sacheli
- Department of Psychology and Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMi); University of Milano-Bicocca; Piazza Dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1 Milano 20126 Italy
- IRCCS; Fondazione Santa Lucia; Rome Italy
| | - H. Bekkering
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior; Radboud University Nijmegen; Montessorilaan 3 Nijmegen 6525HR The Netherlands
| | - I. Toni
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior; Radboud University Nijmegen; Montessorilaan 3 Nijmegen 6525HR The Netherlands
| | - S. M. Aglioti
- IRCCS; Fondazione Santa Lucia; Rome Italy
- Department of Psychology; Sapienza University of Rome; Rome Italy
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