Task-relevant social cues affect whole-body approach-avoidance behavior

Positively evaluated stimuli facilitate approach and negatively evaluated stimuli prompt avoidance responses, as typically measured by reaction time differences when moving a joystick toward the own body or away from it. In this study, we explore whether a whole-body response (forward and backward l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2023-05, Vol.13 (1), p.8568-8568, Article 8568
Main Authors: Welsch, Robin, Hecht, Heiko, Stins, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/477
631/477/2811
Anger
Avoidance behavior
Avoidance Learning
Cues
Emotions - physiology
Facial Expression
Female
Gender
Happiness
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Male
multidisciplinary
Reaction time task
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Social Behavior
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Summary:Positively evaluated stimuli facilitate approach and negatively evaluated stimuli prompt avoidance responses, as typically measured by reaction time differences when moving a joystick toward the own body or away from it. In this study, we explore whether a whole-body response (forward and backward leaning can serve as a better indicator of approach-avoidance behavior; AA). Thirty-two subjects were presented with pictures of males and females with angry or happy facial expressions. Subjects had to perform approach or avoidance responses by leaning forward or backward, either based on the facial expression of the stimulus or the gender of the stimulus. Leaning responses were sensitive to angry faces for explicit decision cues. Here, angry facial expressions facilitated backward leaning but not when responding to the gender of the stimulus. We compare this to the established manual measure of AA and discuss our results with regard to response coding.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-35033-7