TY - JOUR

T1 - Attention on the source of influence reverses the impact of cross-contextual imitation

AU - Genschow, Oliver

AU - Florack, Arnd

PY - 2014/6

Y1 - 2014/6

N2 - Recent investigations of imitation have demonstrated that individuals imitate a primed movement across contexts. For example, when tasting a drink, individuals who observe an athlete lifting a barbell raise their arms to their mouths more often, thus increasing their drink intake because both actions (i.e., weight lifting and drinking) involve the same movements. Other research on semantic priming suggests that individuals often act in the opposite direction of the primed information when their attention is directed toward the source of influence. In one experiment, we tested whether focusing participants' attention on the source of influence leads to such correction processes in a cross-contextual imitation setting as well. Replicating the basic cross-contextual imitation effect, we found that participants whose attention was not directed toward the source of influence drank more when observing an athlete lifting a barbell than when observing an athlete pushing a barbell. However, when participants' attention was directed toward the source of influence, they acted in the opposite direction so strongly that they drank more when watching the pushing movement than when watching the lifting movement.

AB - Recent investigations of imitation have demonstrated that individuals imitate a primed movement across contexts. For example, when tasting a drink, individuals who observe an athlete lifting a barbell raise their arms to their mouths more often, thus increasing their drink intake because both actions (i.e., weight lifting and drinking) involve the same movements. Other research on semantic priming suggests that individuals often act in the opposite direction of the primed information when their attention is directed toward the source of influence. In one experiment, we tested whether focusing participants' attention on the source of influence leads to such correction processes in a cross-contextual imitation setting as well. Replicating the basic cross-contextual imitation effect, we found that participants whose attention was not directed toward the source of influence drank more when observing an athlete lifting a barbell than when observing an athlete pushing a barbell. However, when participants' attention was directed toward the source of influence, they acted in the opposite direction so strongly that they drank more when watching the pushing movement than when watching the lifting movement.

KW - Imitation

KW - Influence awareness

KW - Priming

KW - Stimulus-response compatibility

KW - Business psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84901595192&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/2e44116c-13b0-3022-929b-46ee7db2706c/

U2 - 10.1037/a0035430

DO - 10.1037/a0035430

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 24446718

AN - SCOPUS:84901595192

VL - 40

SP - 904

EP - 907

JO - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

JF - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

SN - 0096-1523

IS - 3

ER -