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Does the threat of COVID-19 modulate automatic imitation?

The tendency to involuntarily imitate the actions of others (automatic imitation) can be modulated by social affiliative cues. Here, we explored whether the disruption to our social lives caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may subsequently influence automatic imitation. Three groups were initially pres...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Roberts, James W., Bennett, Simon J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10124885/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37093873
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284936
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author Roberts, James W.
Bennett, Simon J.
author_facet Roberts, James W.
Bennett, Simon J.
author_sort Roberts, James W.
collection PubMed
description The tendency to involuntarily imitate the actions of others (automatic imitation) can be modulated by social affiliative cues. Here, we explored whether the disruption to our social lives caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may subsequently influence automatic imitation. Three groups were initially presented a sentence comprehension task that featured either neutral (control), safe or unsafe primes to COVID-19 infection. They then completed an automatic imitation task, where a numeric cue was presented alongside apparent motion of an index or middle finger, which was either compatible or incompatible with the required response. Reaction times were longer for the incompatible compared to compatible trials, and thus demonstrated automatic imitation. However, there was no influence of the primes indicating that automatic imitation was unaffected by the risk of COVID-19. The potential theoretical explanations and practical implications of pathogen avoidance and social bonding incentives are discussed with reference to pandemic events.
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spelling pubmed-101248852023-04-25 Does the threat of COVID-19 modulate automatic imitation? Roberts, James W. Bennett, Simon J. PLoS One Research Article The tendency to involuntarily imitate the actions of others (automatic imitation) can be modulated by social affiliative cues. Here, we explored whether the disruption to our social lives caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may subsequently influence automatic imitation. Three groups were initially presented a sentence comprehension task that featured either neutral (control), safe or unsafe primes to COVID-19 infection. They then completed an automatic imitation task, where a numeric cue was presented alongside apparent motion of an index or middle finger, which was either compatible or incompatible with the required response. Reaction times were longer for the incompatible compared to compatible trials, and thus demonstrated automatic imitation. However, there was no influence of the primes indicating that automatic imitation was unaffected by the risk of COVID-19. The potential theoretical explanations and practical implications of pathogen avoidance and social bonding incentives are discussed with reference to pandemic events. Public Library of Science 2023-04-24 /pmc/articles/PMC10124885/ /pubmed/37093873 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284936 Text en © 2023 Roberts, Bennett https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Roberts, James W.
Bennett, Simon J.
Does the threat of COVID-19 modulate automatic imitation?
title Does the threat of COVID-19 modulate automatic imitation?
title_full Does the threat of COVID-19 modulate automatic imitation?
title_fullStr Does the threat of COVID-19 modulate automatic imitation?
title_full_unstemmed Does the threat of COVID-19 modulate automatic imitation?
title_short Does the threat of COVID-19 modulate automatic imitation?
title_sort does the threat of covid-19 modulate automatic imitation?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10124885/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37093873
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284936
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