Top-Down Modulation of Motor Priming by Belief about Animacy: A Registered Replication Report
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In: Experimental Psychology, Vol. 70, No. 6, 01.11.2023, p. 355-365.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Top-Down Modulation of Motor Priming by Belief about Animacy
T2 - A Registered Replication Report
AU - Cracco, Emiel
AU - Liepelt, Roman
AU - Brass, Marcel
AU - Genschow, Oliver
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Hogrefe Publishing GmbH. All rights reserved.
PY - 2023/11/1
Y1 - 2023/11/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - animacy
KW - automatic imitation
KW - beliefs
KW - replication
KW - Philosophy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85190413625&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1027/1618-3169/a000605
DO - 10.1027/1618-3169/a000605
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 38602116
AN - SCOPUS:85190413625
VL - 70
SP - 355
EP - 365
JO - Experimental Psychology
JF - Experimental Psychology
SN - 1618-3169
IS - 6
ER -