Smaller Than Expected

Abstract

In two pre-registered studies, we investigated whether processes of imitative action regulation are facilitated after experiencing an episode of social exclusion. We reasoned that imitative action regulation effects should be more pronounced for participants who were socially excluded, providing them with an "automatic means" to socially reconnect with others. Participants played a virtual ball-tossing game to experimentally induce social exclusion or inclusion experiences. Subsequently, pairs of two participants engaged in an observational stimulus-response (SR) binding paradigm modeled after Giesen et al. (2014): Participants observed color categorization responses in their interaction partner (trial_n-1) and then executed (in)compatible responses in the subsequent trial (trial_n), with observation and responding occurring in alternation. Stimulus relation (repetition vs. change) from trial_n-1 to trial_n was orthogonally manipulated. In both studies, stimulus-based retrieval effects of observationally acquired SR bindings were descriptively larger in socially excluded (compared with socially included) participants. However, none of the effects were statistically significant. Even a joint analysis of both experiments did not show the expected modulation. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on social exclusion effects on imitative action regulation processes.

Keywords: action imitation; event files; observational learning; social exclusion; stimulus–response binding.

Figure 1. Schematic illustration of experimental setup (A) and trial sequence (B) for participants A and B (for illustrative purposes, background and neutral font colors are inverted). In Trial 1, participant A is actor and categorizes the color of the word stimulus (green); participant B is observer and the word stimulus does not change its color. In Trial 2, participant B is actor and has to categorize the word's color (red), whereas participant A is observer. In Trial 3, participant A is actor and categorizes the word color (green). For each participant, only “actor” trials are analyzed as a function of the immediately preceding (observation) trial. Hence, for participant B, Trial 2 is a stimulus repetition (SR) trial in which the required response is incompatible (IC) with the observed response in Trial 1 (SRIC sequence; cf. Table 1). For participant A, Trial 3 is a stimulus change (SC) trial in which the required response is incompatible with the observed response in Trial 2 (SCIC sequence). After execution of the color response in Trial 3, participant A is prompted with a memory test trial and has to press the response key that corresponds to the response they observed in Trial 2. Word stimuli were presented in red/green font color to actors (depicted in boldface; see online article for colored version of Figure 1). To observers, word stimuli were presented in white font color (depicted in gray). Stimuli are not drawn to scale.