From intention to perception: how social context and personality shape affordance effects

Recent evidence shows that object-based compatibility effects are sensitive to contextual and individual differences. Building on these findings, the present study investigated whether social contextual priming and personality traits modulate affordance effects during object categorization. Seventy-seven healthy adults performed a speeded categorization task in which they classified manipulable objects (e.g., hammer, cup) with handles oriented either leftward or rightward as working or personal tools. Target objects were preceded by visual primes depicting either social scenes or isolation scenarios. Personality was assessed using the Big Five Inventory-2 and the Dirty Dozen scale for Dark Triad traits. Results revealed three key findings: (1) a reversed handle-response (H-R) compatibility effect, though moderated by specific personality traits; (2) slower responses for social compared to isolation primes, suggesting that social contexts increase cognitive load; and (3) selective personality moderation, with individuals high in Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, and Narcissism experiencing significant interference from social primes. Critically, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy showed absent reversed compatibility effects, paralleling individuals low in Conscientiousness while these effects remained robust in low-trait individuals and those high in Conscientiousness. These findings demonstrate that while object-based compatibility reflects a fundamental visuomotor mechanism, its occurrence is influenced by individual differences, possibly associated with cognitive control. The results underscore the socially situated and flexible nature of affordance representations, extending contemporary embodied cognition frameworks by revealing how personality traits related to atypical social cognition profoundly modulate whether effect-based action coding occurs.