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

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 8568 - 13
• Main Authors: Welsch, Robin, Hecht, Heiko, Stins, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 26.05.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• 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
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-35033-7

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.