Embodiment, evolution, and social cognition: An integrative framework

Open-hearted: Preferences for openness in the agreeableness domain

OBJECTIVE

Open objects encourage interactivity and closed objects discourage it. Repeated experiences with open and closed objects are thought to give rise to spatial concepts that can be used to represent a variety of entities such as societies, others, and the self. The present investigation pursues the idea that preferring that which is open to that which is closed is more compatible with an agreeable mode of interacting with others.

METHOD

Three studies (total N = 901) asked participants whether they preferred "open" or "closed" as spatial concepts. Such preferences were linked to variations in agreeableness, peer perceptions, and daily measures of pro-social functioning.

RESULTS

Open-preferring, relative to closed-preferring, individuals scored higher in agreeableness (Study 1) and were rated by peers as interpersonally warmer (Study 2). Open preferences varied within and across persons in a daily diary protocol and, in both cases, higher levels of open preference were linked to higher levels of pro-social feeling (Study 3).

CONCLUSION

The findings point to a fundamental component of spatial orientation that plays a significant role in encouraging (open) or discouraging (closed) warm, interactive relations with others.

Influence of bodily resonances on emotional prosody perception

Introduction

Emotional prosody is defined as suprasegmental and segmental changes in the human voice and related acoustic parameters that can inform the listener about the emotional state of the speaker. While the processing of emotional prosody is well represented in the literature, the mechanism of embodied cognition in emotional voice perception is very little studied. This study aimed to investigate the influence of induced bodily vibrations-through a vibrator placed close to the vocal cords-in the perception of emotional vocalizations. The main hypothesis was that induced body vibrations would constitute a potential interoceptive feedback that can influence the auditory perception of emotions. It was also expected that these effects would be greater for stimuli that are more ambiguous.

Methods

Participants were presented with emotional vocalizations expressing joy or anger which varied from low-intensity vocalizations, considered as ambiguous, to high-intensity ones, considered as non-ambiguous. Vibrations were induced simultaneously in half of the trials and expressed joy or anger congruently with the voice stimuli. Participants had to evaluate each voice stimulus using four visual analog scales (joy, anger, and surprise, sadness as control scales).

Results

A significant effect of the vibrations was observed on the three behavioral indexes-discrimination, confusion and accuracy-with vibrations confusing rather than facilitating vocal emotion processing.

Conclusion

Over all, this study brings new light on a poorly documented topic, namely the potential use of vocal cords vibrations as an interoceptive feedback allowing humans to modulate voice production and perception during social interactions.

Defensive functions provoke similar psychophysiological reactions in reaching and comfort spaces

The space around the body crucially serves a variety of functions, first and foremost, preserving one's own safety and avoiding injury. Recent research has shown that emotional information, in particular threatening facial expressions, affects the regulation of peripersonal-reaching space (PPS, for action with objects) and interpersonal-comfort space (IPS, for social interaction). Here we explored if emotional facial expressions may similarly or differently affect both spaces in terms of psychophysiological reactions (cardiac inter-beat intervals: IBIs, i.e. inverse of heart rate; Skin Conductance Response amplitude: SCR amplitude) and spatial distance. Through Immersive Virtual Reality technology, participants determined reaching-distance (PPS) and comfort-distance (IPS) from virtual confederates exhibiting happy/angry/neutral facial expressions while being approached by them. During these interactions, spatial distance and psychophysiological reactions were recorded. Results revealed that when interacting with angry virtual confederates the distance increased similarly in both comfort-social and reaching-action spaces. Moreover, interacting with virtual confederates exhibiting angry rather than happy or neutral expressions provoked similar psychophysiological activations (SCR amplitude, IBIs) in both spaces. Regression analyses showed that psychophysiological activations, particularly SCR amplitude in response to virtual confederates approaching with angry expressions, were able to predict the increase of PPS and IPS. These findings suggest that self-protection functions could be the expression of a common defensive mechanism shared by social and action spaces.

Role of Embodied Movement in Assessing Creative Behavior in Early Childhood: A Focused Review

The controlled measurement of creative potential in early childhood is imperative for researchers seeking to fully understand the initial emergence and development of creativity. Evidence for original ideation has been demonstrated in infants as young as one year old, through their performance of movement-based, interactive creativity tasks. In this focused review of developmental research, we suggest that embodied movements and interactive play may uniquely facilitate creative thinking in early childhood (i.e., from birth to age six). From this review, we propose that embodied movement reinforces physical interactions that influence cognitions underlying creative behavior. Embodied creativity may supplement traditional creativity measures, as young children may be more inclined to represent their inner thoughts and experiences through movement rather than through language alone. Thus, we explored the importance of embodied creativity as a means of informing current researchers about the development of creativity, and we suggest future experimental research in this area.

Neural reuse leads to associative connections between concrete (physical) and abstract (social) concepts and motives

Consistent with neural reuse theory, empirical tests of the related "scaffolding" principle of abstract concept development show that higher-level concepts "reuse" and are built upon fundamental motives such as survival, safety, and consumption. This produces mutual influence between the two levels, with far-ranging impacts from consumer behavior to political attitudes.

Near or far? It depends on my impression: moral information and spatial behavior in virtual interactions

Near body distance is a key component of action and social interaction. Recent research has shown that peripersonal space (reachability-distance for acting with objects) and interpersonal space (comfort-distance for interacting with people) share common mechanisms and reflect the social valence of stimuli. The social psychological literature has demonstrated that information about morality is crucial because it affects impression formation and the intention to approach-avoid others. Here we explore whether peripersonal/interpersonal spaces are modulated by moral information. Thirty-six participants interacted with male/female virtual confederates described by moral/immoral/neutral sentences. The modulation of body space was measured by reachability-distance and comfort-distance while participants stood still or walked toward virtual confederates. Results showed that distance expanded with immorally described confederates and contracted with morally described confederates. This pattern was present in both spaces, although it was stronger in comfort-distance. Consistent with an embodied cognition approach, the findings suggest that high-level socio-cognitive processes are linked to sensorimotor-spatial processes.

The clock is ticking: the sound of a ticking clock speeds up women's attitudes on reproductive timing

The "biological clock" serves as a powerful metaphor that reflects the constraints posed by female reproductive biology. The biological clock refers to the progression of time from puberty to menopause, marking the period during which women can conceive children. Findings from two experiments suggest that priming the passage of time through the sound of a ticking clock influenced various aspects of women's (but not men's) reproductive timing. Moreover, consistent with recent research from the domain of life history theory, those effects depended on women's childhood socioeconomic status (SES). The subtle sound of a ticking clock led low (but not high) SES women to reduce the age at which they sought to get married and have their first child (Study 1), as well as the priority they placed on the social status and long-term earning potential of potential romantic partners (Study 2). Findings suggest that early developmental sensitization processes can interact with subtle environmental stimuli to affect reproductive timing during adulthood.

Prospects for direct social perception: a multi-theoretical integration to further the science of social cognition

In this paper we suggest that differing approaches to the science of social cognition mirror the arguments between radical embodied and traditional approaches to cognition. We contrast the use in social cognition of theoretical inference and mental simulation mechanisms with approaches emphasizing a direct perception of others’ mental states. We build from a recent integrative framework unifying these divergent perspectives through the use of dual-process theory and supporting social neuroscience research. Our elaboration considers two complementary notions of direct perception: one primarily stemming from ecological psychology and the other from enactive cognition theory. We use this as the foundation from which to offer an account of the informational basis for social information and assert a set of research propositions to further the science of social cognition. In doing so, we point out how perception of the minds of others can be supported in some cases by lawful information, supporting direct perception of social affordances and perhaps, mental states, and in other cases by cues that support indirect perceptual inference. Our goal is to extend accounts of social cognition by integrating advances across disciplines to provide a multi-level and multi-theoretic description that can advance this field and offer a means through which to reconcile radical embodied and traditional approaches to cognitive neuroscience.

Embodied effects are moderated by situational cues: warmth, threat, and the desire for affiliation

Recent research demonstrates fundamental links between low-level bodily states and higher order psychological processes. How those links interact with the surrounding social context, however, is not well-understood. Findings from two experiments indicate that the psychological link between physical warmth and social affiliation depends on the situation in which the warmth is experienced. Participants who had been primed with physical threat (as compared with control conditions) responded to warmth with stronger increases in affiliative motivation. This effect replicated across different threat and warmth primes. These findings support a view in which physical sensations interact dynamically with aspects of the immediate situation to influence the activation and application of higher order social processes. This view implies that many embodied psychological processes could function to help people respond adaptively to situational threats and opportunities.

Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences

Although storytelling often has negative connotations within science, narrative formats of communication should not be disregarded when communicating science to nonexpert audiences. Narratives offer increased comprehension, interest, and engagement. Nonexperts get most of their science information from mass media content, which is itself already biased toward narrative formats. Narratives are also intrinsically persuasive, which offers science communicators tactics for persuading otherwise resistant audiences, although such use also raises ethical considerations. Future intersections of narrative research with ongoing discussions in science communication are introduced.

Cold-blooded loneliness: social exclusion leads to lower skin temperatures

Being ostracized or excluded, even briefly and by strangers, is painful and threatens fundamental needs. Recent work by Zhong and Leonardelli (2008) found that excluded individuals perceive the room as cooler and that they desire warmer drinks. A perspective that many rely on in embodiment is the theoretical idea that people use metaphorical associations to understand social exclusion (see Landau, Meier, & Keefer, 2010). We suggest that people feel colder because they are colder. The results strongly support the idea that more complex metaphorical understandings of social relations are scaffolded onto literal changes in bodily temperature: Being excluded in an online ball tossing game leads to lower finger temperatures (Study 1), while the negative affect typically experienced after such social exclusion is alleviated after holding a cup of warm tea (Study 2). The authors discuss further implications for the interaction between body and social relations specifically, and for basic and cognitive systems in general.