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

Robin Welsch*, Heiko Hecht, John Stins

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8568
Pages (from-to)1-13
Number of pages13
JournalScientific Reports
Volume13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 May 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Agnes Münch designed the virtual people. The authors thank Ann Huang for feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript. They thank Hilmar Zech and Lotte van Dillen for discussions on the experimental design.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Task-relevant social cues affect whole-body approach-avoidance behavior'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this