TY - JOUR

T1 - Automatic imitation of pro- and antisocial gestures

T2 - Is implicit social behavior censored?

AU - Cracco, Emiel

AU - Genschow, Oliver

AU - Radkova, Ina

AU - Brass, Marcel

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the Research Foundation Flanders Grant FWO14/ASP/050 awarded to the first author and by a grant from the Swiss National Science. Foundation (grant number PZ00P1_168007) awarded to the second author. The stimuli, code, data, and analyses from all experiments are available at the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/3zucm/ . Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2018/1/1

Y1 - 2018/1/1

N2 - According to social reward theories, automatic imitation can be understood as a means to obtain positive social consequences. In line with this view, it has been shown that automatic imitation is modulated by contextual variables that constrain the positive outcomes of imitation. However, this work has largely neglected that many gestures have an inherent pro- or antisocial meaning. As a result of their meaning, antisocial gestures are considered taboo and should not be used in public. In three experiments, we show that automatic imitation of symbolic gestures is modulated by the social intent of these gestures. Experiment 1 (N = 37) revealed reduced automatic imitation of antisocial compared with prosocial gestures. Experiment 2 (N = 118) and Experiment 3 (N = 118) used a social priming procedure to show that this effect was stronger in a prosocial context than in an antisocial context. These findings were supported in a within-study meta-analysis using both frequentist and Bayesian statistics. Together, our results indicate that automatic imitation is regulated by internalized social norms that act as a stop signal when inappropriate actions are triggered.

AB - According to social reward theories, automatic imitation can be understood as a means to obtain positive social consequences. In line with this view, it has been shown that automatic imitation is modulated by contextual variables that constrain the positive outcomes of imitation. However, this work has largely neglected that many gestures have an inherent pro- or antisocial meaning. As a result of their meaning, antisocial gestures are considered taboo and should not be used in public. In three experiments, we show that automatic imitation of symbolic gestures is modulated by the social intent of these gestures. Experiment 1 (N = 37) revealed reduced automatic imitation of antisocial compared with prosocial gestures. Experiment 2 (N = 118) and Experiment 3 (N = 118) used a social priming procedure to show that this effect was stronger in a prosocial context than in an antisocial context. These findings were supported in a within-study meta-analysis using both frequentist and Bayesian statistics. Together, our results indicate that automatic imitation is regulated by internalized social norms that act as a stop signal when inappropriate actions are triggered.

KW - Automatic imitation

KW - Context

KW - Mimicry

KW - Social norm

KW - Social priming

KW - Taboo

KW - Business psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030871016&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.09.019

DO - 10.1016/j.cognition.2017.09.019

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 29028611

AN - SCOPUS:85030871016

VL - 170

SP - 179

EP - 189

JO - Cognition

JF - Cognition

SN - 0010-0277

ER -