In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, barrier gestures such as regular hand-washing, social distancing, and wearing a face mask are highly recommended. Critically, interpersonal distance (IPD) ...depends on the affective dimension of social interaction, which might be affected by the current Covid-19 context. In the present internet-based experimental study, we analyzed the preferred IPD of 457 French participants when facing human-like characters that were either wearing a face mask or displaying a neutral, happy or angry facial expression. Results showed that IPD was significantly reduced when characters were wearing a face mask, as they were perceived as more trustworthy compared to the other conditions. Importantly, IPD was even more reduced in participants infected with Covid-19 or living in low-risk areas, while it was not affected by the predicted health of the characters. These findings shed further light on the psychological factors that motivate IPD adjustments, in particular when facing a collective threat. They are also of crucial importance for policy makers as they reveal that despite the indisputable value of wearing a face mask in the current pandemic context, their use should be accompanied by an emphasis on social distancing to prevent detrimental health consequences.
The peripersonal space is an adaptive and flexible interface between the body and the environment that fulfills a dual-motor function: preparing the body for voluntary object-oriented actions to ...interact with incentive stimuli and preparing the body for defensive responses when facing potentially harmful stimuli. In this position article, we provide arguments for the sensorimotor rooting of the peripersonal space representation and highlight the variables that contribute to its flexible and adaptive characteristics. We also demonstrate that peripersonal space represents a mediation zone between the body and the environment contributing to not only the control of goal-directed actions but also the organization of social life. The whole of the data presented and discussed led us to the proposal of a new theoretical framework linking the peripersonal action space and the interpersonal social space and we highlight how this theoretical framework can account for social behaviors in populations with socio-emotional deficits.
Accurate control of interpersonal distances in social contexts is an important determinant of effective social interactions. Although comfortable interpersonal distance seems to be dependent on ...social factors such as the gender, age and activity of the confederates, it also seems to be modulated by the way we represent our peripersonal-action space. To test this hypothesis, the present study investigated the relation between the emotional responses registered through electrodermal activity (EDA) triggered by human-like point-light displays (PLDs) carrying different facial expressions (neutral, angry, happy) when located in the participants peripersonal or extrapersonal space, and the comfort distance with the same PLDs when approaching and crossing the participants fronto-parallel axis on the right or left side. The results show an increase of the phasic EDA for PLDs with angry facial expressions located in the peripersonal space (reachability judgment task), in comparison to the same PLDs located in the extrapersonal space, which was not observed for PLDs with neutral or happy facial expressions. The results also show an increase of the comfort distance for PLDs approaching the participants with an angry facial expression (interpersonal comfort distance judgment task), in comparison to PLDs with happy and neutral ones, which was related to the increase of the physiological response. Overall, the findings indicate that comfort social space can be predicted from the emotional reaction triggered by a confederate when located within the observer's peripersonal space. This suggests that peripersonal-action space and interpersonal-social space are similarly sensitive to the emotional valence of the confederate, which could reflect a common adaptive mechanism in specifying theses spaces to subtend interactions with both the physical and social environment, but also to ensure body protection from potential threats.
Previous studies have shown that objects located in the peripersonal space (PPS) receive enhanced attention, as compared with extrapersonal space (EPS), However, most objects in the environment ...belong to someone in particular and how object ownership influences object coding in relation to PPS representation is still unclear. In the present study, after having chosen their own mug, participants performed a reachability judgement task of self-owned and other-owned mugs presented at different distances while facing a virtual character. This task was followed, on each trial, by a localisation task in which participants had to indicate where the mug, removed from view, was previously located. The two tasks were separated by a 900-ms visual mask during which the virtual character was unnoticeably shifted by 3° to evaluate the spatial frame-of-reference used. The results showed that self-owned mugs were processed faster than other-owned mugs, but only when located in the PPS. Furthermore, reachability judgements were biased for self-owned mugs, leading to an extension of the PPS representation, especially for participants with a high score on the fantasy scale of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Finally, the virtual character shift altered the localisation performance but only for the distant mugs, suggesting a progressive shift from egocentric to allocentric frame-of-reference when moving from the PPS to EPS, irrespective of object ownership. Overall, our data reveal that the representations of ownership and PPS interact to facilitate the processing of manipulable objects, to an extent that depends on individual sensitivity to the social presence of others.
In social interactions, valence-based judgments are an important component of interpersonal distances regulation. Within the framework of the Range-Frequency model, we tested whether temporal ...presentation of an emotional context, known to produce a contrast effect on valence ratings, also influences the regulation of interpersonal distances. Two groups of participants were shown virtual characters with either a neutral facial expression (target stimuli) or an emotional facial expression (contextual stimuli) in two successive sessions (angry then happy emotional context, or vice-versa). Participants rated the valence of the characters and judged the appropriateness of various interpersonal distances. The results showed a contrast effect of the emotional context on the valence rating of neutral characters, which extended to preferred interpersonal distance, although sparingly. The findings revealed thus that the emotional context alters more perceptual-related valence-based judgments than action-related interpersonal distance judgments.
Interpersonal distance, an essential component of social interaction, is modulated by the emotion conveyed by others and associated physiological response. However, in modern societies with ...overcrowded and hyperstimulating environments, we can only surreptitiously glimpse the faces of others in order to quickly make behavioral adjustments. How this impacts social interactions is not yet well understood. In the present study, we investigated this issue by testing whether facial expressions that are difficult to identify modify the physiological response (Electrodermal Activity, EDA) and subsequent judgment of interpersonal comfort distance. We recorded participants’ EDA while they provided comfort judgments to interpersonal distances with a Point‐Light Walker (PLW). The PLW, with an emotionally neutral gait, moved toward and crossed participants at various distances after the latter were exposed to a negative (anger), positive (happiness) or neutral facial expression presented at the perceptual threshold. Bayesian analyses of the data revealed an increase versus decrease of interpersonal comfort distance with the PLW depending on the negative versus positive emotional valence of the facial expression. They also showed an increase in EDA when the approaching PLW violated interpersonal comfort distance after participants were exposed to an angry facial expression. These effects correlated with the subjective assessment of the arousal of facial expressions. Thus, previous exposure to barely visible facial expressions can alter the representation of social comfort space and the physiological response associated with a violation of interpersonal comfort distances, depending on the valence and arousal of the emotional social stimuli.
Others’ facial expressions (FE) contribute to the specification of interpersonal distance in social interactions. Here, we demonstrate that FE with poor visibility alter comfort interpersonal distance depending on the valence of FE. Furthermore, EDA increased after exposition to angry FE, but only in case of violation of comfort social space.
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.
Abstract
Background
Wearing a face mask and keeping a minimal distance from others are common nonpharmaceutical interventions that governments may mandate or recommend to contain the spread of ...infectious diseases. The article addresses the following questions: (i) Do people interact closer when the face mask is worn? (ii) Do people interact closer because they believe that the mask reduces the risk of contagion? (iii) If the mask induces people to interact closer, does the increase in risk entailed by shorter distances entirely offset the decrease in risk offered by the mask?
Methods
With a view to maximizing both the external and the internal validity of the study, between 2021 and 2022 we performed a large field experiment on real-life interactions (n > 4500) and a controlled laboratory experiment in virtual reality.
Results
Converging between the field and the lab, the results indicate that in general people interact closer when the mask is worn, and in particular when they believe that the mask reduces the risk of contagion. However, even assuming a very low filtration efficacy and an extremely large distance-reducing effect of the mask, the counteracting effect of shorter interpersonal distances is never strong enough to entirely offset the mask’s protection.
Conclusion
The distance-reducing effect of the mask is real but warrants no serious objection against a face mask policy.
The study investigated interpersonal distance in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), focussing on the role of other's facial expression and morphology, also assessing physiological and subjective ...responses.
Twenty-nine patients with AN and 30 controls (CTL) were exposed to virtual characters either with an angry, neutral, or happy facial expression or with an overweight, normal-weight, or underweight morphology presented either in the near or far space while we recorded electrodermal activity. Participants had to judge their preferred interpersonal distance with the characters and rated them in terms of valence and arousal.
Unlike CTL, patients with AN exhibited heightened electrodermal activity for morphological stimuli only, when presented in the near space. They also preferred larger and smaller interpersonal distances with overweight and underweight characters respectively, although rating both negatively. Finally, and similar to CTL, they preferred larger interpersonal distance with angry than neutral or happy characters.
Although patients with AN exhibited behavioural response to emotional stimuli similar to CTL, they lacked corresponding physiological response, indicating emotional blunting towards emotional social stimuli. Moreover, they showed distinct behavioural and physiological adjustments in response to body shape, confirming the specific emotional significance attached to body shape.
Our ability to code visual objects in a motor format contributes to the development of a functional representation of the external world, which involves a specific cerebral treatment of the ...peripersonal and extrapersonal space. Peripersonal space is commonly conceived as a multimodal representation allowing the organization of intentional motor actions and the access to specific concepts related to objects. Because of its motor properties, peripersonal space also constitutes a space of protection against external threats and thus participates in the organization of social interactions. On the basis of recent experimental, brain imaging and neuropsychological data, we will defend the idea that the regulation of interpersonal distances is based on two distinct processes : the sensory-motor specification of peripersonal space which determines the physical constraints of social interactions and the emotional specification of threat in the environment determining approach/ avoidance behaviors. The integration of these motor and affective dimensions thus allows for a unified framework for the control of object-directed actions and social interactions, consistent with embodied approaches of cognition.
Les fondements sensorimoteurs de la régulation des distances interpersonnelles. Notre capacité à coder les objets visuels dans un format sensorimoteur contribue à l’élaboration d'une représentation fonctionnelle du monde environnant, impliquant un traitement neural distinct de l’espace péripersonnel et extrapersonnel. Un point de vue partagé est que l'espace péripersonnel est une représentation multimodale permettant l’organisation des actes moteurs volontaires et le développement conceptuel relatif aux objets. De par ses propriétés motrices, l’espace péripersonnel constitue également un espace de protection contre les menaces extérieures et participe ainsi à l’organisation des interactions sociales. Sur la base de données expérimentales, d''imagerie cérébrale et neuropsychologiques récentes, nous défendrons l’idée que la régulation des distances interpersonnelles repose sur deux processus distincts : la spécification sensori-motrice de l’espace péripersonnel qui détermine les contraintes physiques des interactions sociales et la spécification émotionnelle du niveau de menace dans l'environnement qui détermine les processus d’approche/évitement. L''intégration de ces dimensions motrices et affectives permet ainsi d’envisager un cadre unifié du contrôle des actions dirigées vers les objets et des interactions sociales, en accord avec les approches incarnées de la cognition.
Cartaud Alice,Coello Yann. The Sensorimotor Foundations of Interpersonal Space Regulation. In: Intellectica. Revue de l'Association pour la Recherche Cognitive, n°74, 2021/1. Mémoire et cognition incarnée : comment le sens du monde se construit-il dans nos interactions avec l'environnement ? pp. 79-100.
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