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Social cues can impact complex behavior unconsciously

Psychology

Social cues can impact complex behavior unconsciously

C. Schütz, I. Güldenpenning, et al.

This groundbreaking research by Christoph Schütz, Iris Güldenpenning, Dirk Koester, and Thomas Schack delves into how unconscious social priming subtly shapes our decisions in complex tasks. Through a choice reaction time task, it reveals that subliminal cues can automatically steer our responses, presenting a fascinating look at the intersection of social cognition and behavior.... show more
Abstract
In three experiments, we investigated whether task-irrelevant social cues (gaze direction) can unconsciously influence human behavior in a choice reaction time task using life-sized photographs of a basketball player passing a ball left/right as targets. Participants responded to pass direction either with a complex whole-body movement or a simple button press. Subliminal primes (forward- and backward-masked) contained both task-relevant (pass) and task-irrelevant social (gaze) cues. We found subliminal social priming for both kinematic (center of pressure) and chronometric (RT) measures: prime gaze direction affected responses to target pass direction. The social priming effect diminished when gaze information in targets was unhelpful or detrimental. Thus, social priming of complex behavior does not require awareness or intention, indicating automatic processing, yet it can be modulated by top-down strategic control.
Publisher
Scientific Reports
Published On
Oct 27, 2020
Authors
Christoph Schütz, Iris Güldenpenning, Dirk Koester, Thomas Schack
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77646-2
Tags
unconscious priming
social cues
behavioral response
masked priming
reaction time
gaze direction
automatic processing

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