title: Near or far? It depends on my impression: moral information and spatial behavior in virtual interactions.
abstract: Near body distance is a key component of action and social interaction. Recent research has shown that peripersonal space (reachability-distance for acting with objects) and interpersonal space (comfort-distance for interacting with people) share common mechanisms and reflect the social valence of stimuli. The social psychological literature has demonstrated that information about morality is crucial because it affects impression formation and the intention to approach-avoid others. Here we explore whether peripersonal/interpersonal spaces are modulated by moral information. Thirty-six participants interacted with male/female virtual confederates described by moral/immoral/neutral sentences. The modulation of body space was measured by reachability-distance and comfort-distance while participants stood still or walked toward virtual confederates. Results showed that distance expanded with immorally described confederates and contracted with morally described confederates. This pattern was present in both spaces, although it was stronger in comfort-distance. Consistent with an embodied cognition approach, the findings suggest that high-level socio-cognitive processes are linked to sensorimotor-spatial processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples, Italy; Laboratory of Immersive Virtual Reality, Second University of Naples, Italy. Electronic address: santa.iachini@unina2.it.
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iachini
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pagliaro
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples, Italy; Laboratory of Immersive Virtual Reality, Second University of Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Gennaro
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ruggiero
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003196:Computer Graphics; D004215:Distance Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D010550:Personal Space; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Embodied social cognition; Interpersonal social space; Moral evaluation; Peripersonal action space; Sensorimotor spatial processing