Task-relevant social cues affect whole-body approach-avoidance behavior.

Positively evaluated stimuli facilitate approach and negatively evaluated stimuli prompt avoidance responses, as typically measured by reaction time differences when moving a joystick toward the own body or away from it. In this study, we explore whether a whole-body response (forward and backward leaning can serve as a better indicator of approach-avoidance behavior; AA). Thirty-two subjects were presented with pictures of males and females with angry or happy facial expressions. Subjects had to perform approach or avoidance responses by leaning forward or backward, either based on the facial expression of the stimulus or the gender of the stimulus. Leaning responses were sensitive to angry faces for explicit decision cues. Here, angry facial expressions facilitated backward leaning but not when responding to the gender of the stimulus. We compare this to the established manual measure of AA and discuss our results with regard to response coding.

Adapting to the pandemic: longitudinal effects of social restrictions on time perception and boredom during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, many governments introduced nationwide lockdowns that disrupted people's daily routines and promoted social isolation. We applied a longitudinal online survey to investigate the mid-term effects of the mandated restrictions on the perceived passage of time (PPT) and boredom during and after a strict lockdown in Germany. One week after the beginning of the lockdown in March 2020, respondents reported a slower PPT and increased boredom compared to the pre-pandemic level. However, in the course of the lockdown, PPT accelerated and boredom decreased again until August 2020. Then, in October 2020, when incidence rates sharply rose and new restrictions were introduced, we again observed a slight trend toward a slowing of PPT and an increase of boredom. Our data also show that as the pandemic progressed, respondents adjusted their predictions about the pandemic's duration substantially upward. In sum, our findings suggest that respondents adapted to the pandemic situation and anticipated it as the new "normal". Furthermore, we determined perceived boredom and the general emotional state to be predictive of PPT, while depressive symptoms played a minor role.

Physical distancing and the perception of interpersonal distance in the COVID-19 crisis.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been mandated to keep enlarged distances from others. We interviewed 136 German subjects over five weeks from the end of March to the end of April 2020 during the first wave of infections about their preferred interpersonal distance (IPD) before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, subjects adapted to distance requirements and preferred a larger IPD. This enlarged IPD was judged to partially persist after the pandemic crisis. People anticipated keeping more IPD to others even if there was no longer any risk of a SARS-CoV-2 infection. We also sampled two follow-up measurements, one in August, after the first wave of infections had been flattened, and one in October 2020, at the beginning of the second wave. Here, we observed that IPD varied with the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 within Germany. Overall, our data indicated that adaptation to distance requirements might happen asymmetrically. Preferred IPD rapidly adapted in response to distance requirements, but an enlargement of IPD may partially linger after the COVID-19 pandemic-crisis. We discuss our findings in light of proxemic theory and as an indicator for socio-cultural adaptation beyond the course of the pandemic.

Test-Retest Reliability and Temporal Agreement of Direct and Indirect Sexual Interest Measures.

The Explicit and Implicit Sexual Interest Profile (EISIP) is a multimethod measure of sexual interest in children and adults. It combines indirect latency-based measures such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT), Viewing Time (VT), and explicit self-report measures. This study examined test-retest reliability and absolute temporal agreement of the EISIP over a 2-week interval in persons who were convicted of sexual offenses against children (n = 33) and nonoffending controls (n = 48). Test-retest reliability of the aggregated EISIP measures was high across the whole sample (rtt = .90, intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = .90) with the IAT yielding the lowest retest correlations (rtt = .66, ICC = .66). However, these indicators of relative reliability only quantify the temporal stability of individual differences within the group, not the detectability of individual change. Absolute temporal agreement as assessed via Bland-Altman plots ranged from one fourth to three thirds of a standardized unit in the sexual preference scores. This implies that individual change has to exceed medium to large standardized effect sizes to be distinguishable from spontaneous temporal variation in the EISIP measures. Overall, scores of combined measures were largely superior to single measures in terms of both absolute and relative reliability.

Interpersonal Distance in the SARS-CoV-2 Crisis.

BACKGROUND: Mandatory rules for social distancing to curb the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic require individuals to maintain a critical interpersonal distance above 1.5 m. However, this contradicts our natural preference, which is closer to 1 m for non-intimate encounters, for example, when asking a stranger for directions. OBJECTIVE: This review addresses how humans typically regulate interpersonal distances, in order to highlight the challenges of enforcing atypically large interpersonal distances. METHOD: To understand the challenges posed by social distancing requirements, we integrate relevant contributions from visual perception, social perception, and human factors. RESULTS: To date, research on preferred interpersonal distances suggests that social distancing could induce discomfort, heighten arousal, and decrease social signaling in the short term. While the protracted effects of social distancing are unclear, we propose hypotheses on the mid- to long-term consequences of violating preferred norms of interpersonal distances. CONCLUSION: We suggest that enforcing a physical distance of 1.5-2 m presents a serious challenge to behavioral norms. APPLICATION: We address how notifications, architectural design, and visualizations could be effectively applied to promote interpersonal distance requirements.

Sexual attraction modulates interpersonal distance and approach-avoidance movements towards virtual agents in males.

How does sexual attraction alter social interaction behavior? We examined the influence of sexual orientation on locomotor approach-avoidance behavior and interpersonal distance. We immersed androphilic and gynophilic male subjects into a virtual environment and presented various male and female virtual persons. In the first experiment, subjects took a step forward (approach) or backward (avoidance) in response to the sex of the virtual person. We measured reaction time, peak velocity, and step size, and obtained ratings of sexual attractiveness in every trial. In the second experiment, subjects had to approach the virtual person as if they were to engage in a social interaction. Here, we analyzed interpersonal distance and peak velocity of the approaches. Our results suggest that sexual attraction facilitates the approach response and reduces the preferred interpersonal distance. We discuss our findings in terms of proxemics, current findings in sex research, and the applicability of our novel task in other fields of psychological research.

Body image avoidance affects interpersonal distance perception: A virtual environment experiment.

OBJECTIVE: Eating disorders have a considerable influence on social contacts. The avoidance towards the own body may result in the avoidance of others. Previous research has found a preference for larger interaction distances in individuals with eating disorders (ED) as compared to control participants (CG). We aimed to replicate these findings and to investigate whether the body weight of the interactant moderates the effect. METHOD: We recruited a female sample with mixed ED subtypes (n = 21) and a female CG (n = 28). Participants were immersed in a virtual environment and engaged in a number of fictitious social interactions. They approached a virtual person until a comfortable distance for interaction was reached. The approached virtual persons differed with respect to body weight in five levels (underweight to obese). RESULTS: Our results indicate that interpersonal distance varies as a U-shaped function of the avatar's body weight, and that higher levels of body avoidance, present in ED individuals, magnify this effect. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss our results with regard to the role of perspective and disgust to provide a useful framework and to motivate future studies in the domain of body avoidance in social interactions.

The anisotropy of personal space.

Violations of personal space are associated with discomfort. However, the exact function linking the magnitude of discomfort to interpersonal distance has not yet been specified. In this study, we explore whether interpersonal distance and discomfort are isotropic with respect to uncomfortably far or close distances. We also extend previous findings with regard to intrusions into personal space as well as maintenance of distances outside of personal space. We presented subjects with 15 interpersonal distances ranging from 40 to 250 cm and obtained verbal and joystick-based ratings of discomfort. Whereas discomfort rose immediately when personal space was entered, the gradient was less steep for distances that exceeded the comfort region of personal space. Thus, personal space is anisotropic with regard to experienced discomfort.

The shape of personal space.

The notion of a personal space surrounding one's ego-center is time-honored. However, few attempts have been made to measure the shape of this space. With increasing use of virtual environments, the question has arisen if real-world aspects, such as gender-effects or the shape of personal space, translate to virtual setups. We conducted two experiments, one with real people matched according to body height and level of acquaintance in a large laboratory setting, and one where subjects faced a virtual character, likewise matched to their body height. The first experiment also used a mannequin in place of the second human observer. The second experiment additionally manipulated the perspective of the subject to compare estimates of interpersonal distance between an egocentric and an allocentric perspective (in third-person view). Subjects approached (or were approached) from different angles until a comfortable distance for conversation with a stranger was reached (stop-distance task). Personal space turned out to be rather circular with a radius of about 1 m. Male pairs kept larger distances from one another than female or mixed-gender pairs. All subjects assumed larger distances to the mannequin compared to the real observer. Very comparable distances were preferred to the avatar in the virtual environment. Also, it did not matter whether the subject was engaged in active approach, was approached, or merely adjusted the distance between two avatars. Implications for theories of personal space are discussed.

Response inhibition and impulsive decision-making in sexual offenders against children.

Current theories view impulsivity as an important factor in the explanation of sexual offending. While impulsivity itself is a multidimensional construct, response inhibition and impulsive decision-making are frequently discussed subcomponents. Impulsivity in sexual offenders could be triggered by sexual cues with high emotional significance. The present study compared response inhibition abilities and the degree of impulsive decision-making between 63 child sexual abusers and 63 nonoffending controls. A Go/No-Go task was used to assess response inhibition, while the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Game of Dice Task (GDT) were used for the assessment of decision-making. In contrast to previous studies, modified versions of the Go/No-Go task and the IGT were used, including pictures of the Not Real People-Set depicting nude adults and children. Child sexual abusers showed more deficits in response inhibition in the Go/No-Go task. Furthermore, decision-making was especially impaired by the presence of child images in child sexual abusers with more intense pedophilic sexual interests. In contrast, in the nonoffending controls the presence of preferred sexual cues (pictures of women) improved decision-making performance. No differences in overall GDT performance were found between the groups; however, child sexual abusers chose the riskiest option more frequently than nonoffending controls. In line with theoretical assumptions about the processes underlying sexual offending, child sexual abusers show more deficits in neuropsychological functioning, which may be related to more impulsive behaviors. These impairments could be triggered by the presence of sexually relevant cues. (PsycINFO Database Record