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Perceiving conspecifics as integrated body-gestalts is an embodied process.
Klaus Kessler1, Sebastien Miellet
1Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom. k.kessler@psy.gla.ac.uk
Journal of Experimental Psychology. General
|August 8, 2012
Summary
Posture congruence, or matching body positions, influences social perception. This embodied body-gestalt (eBG) completion helps us understand others and may explain subconscious alignment in interactions.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Neuroscience
- Embodied Cognition
Background:
- Social perception traditionally viewed as a visual process.
- The role of embodied processes in understanding body gestalts is under-explored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if posture congruence mediates the completion of body gestalts.
- To test the hypothesis that observer and stimulus posture congruence is key.
Main Methods:
- Development of novel stimuli combining faces and hands to imply different postures.
- Three experiments measuring imitative finger movement speed based on posture matching.
Main Results:
- Imitative finger movements were significantly faster when observer posture matched the implied stimulus posture.
- This suggests participants used their own body schema to interpret stimuli.
Conclusions:
- Embodied body-gestalt (eBG) completion is influenced by posture congruence.
- eBG completion may be crucial for social perception, survival, and subconscious interpersonal alignment.
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