Exploring the effects of sexual prejudice on dyadic interactions through an automated analysis of nonverbal behaviours

Nonverbal behaviours (NVB) are a fundamental part of the communication process: especially indicative of individuals\u2019 inner states such as attitudes and motivations, NVBs can deeply shape the perceived quality of the interaction. Despite their practical importance and theoretical value, NVBs in intergroup interactions (i.e. intergroup nonverbal behaviours; INVB) are an understudied topic. So far, they have been mainly investigated within interethnic contexts (i.e., White and Black people) and by employing invasive or time-consuming procedures, mainly involving subjective evaluations of video-recorded interactions by external coders. The present work aimed at extending previous literature by exploring NVB and its relationship with prejudice within gay/straight dyadic interactions, a relevant but still partially unexplored intergroup context within this field of research. Differently from ethnicity, sexual orientation is less identifiable and cannot be ascertained from visible markers such as the skin colour, but requires self-disclosure. Further and most importantly, we assessed patterns of NVBs through an RGB-depth camera \u2013 the Microsoft Kinect V.2 Sensor \u2013 that allowed us to obtain exact quantitative measures of body movements in a fully automatic and continuous way. In doing so, we conducted three experimental studies in which heterosexual participants (total N = 284) were first administered measures of implicit bias and explicit prejudice towards gay men (Study 1 & 3) or lesbians (Study 2), and then asked to interact with a gay (vs. straight; Study 1 & 3) or lesbian (vs. straight) confederate (Study 2), whose sexual orientation was manipulated (Studies 1 & 2) or disclosed (Study 3). A fake Facebook profile, shown to the participant before the interaction, revealed the confederates\u2019 sexual orientation. In all the studies, we considered the pattern of results on two main NVBs, one concerning proxemics (i.e., interpersonal volume between interactants) and the other concerning kinesics (i.e., amount of upper body motions). We selected these NVBs because previous research revealed that they are particularly meaningful for the comprehension of the psychological immediacy between interactants (i.e., interpersonal volume) and their comfort (or discomfort; amount of upper body motions) during a dyadic interaction. Overall, our work revealed a relevant (and unexpected) pattern of findings concerning interpersonal distance. Unlike previous literature, Study 1 revealed that high (vs. low) implicitly biased participants, instead of keeping a larger distance, tended to stay closer to the confederate presented as gay (vs. straight), especially when discussing a topic concerning the intergroup relation (i.e., the situation of the gay community in Italy) than a neutral one. This result was importantly extended in Study 3: high (vs. low) implicitly biased participants that stood closer to the gay (vs. straight) confederate revealed greater cognitive depletion (i.e., lower performance on a Stroop colour-naming task) after the conversation. This latter result suggests that, at least within gay/straight men interactions, interpersonal distance is an NVB that (high implicitly biased) people can control to manage their self-presentation, with consequent greater impairment of their cognitive resources. This main finding was not replicated in Study 2, in which we focused on dyadic interactions between heterosexual participants and lesbian women, by confirming how heterosexual people\u2019s attitudes (and their consequent INVBs) towards this minority group is distinct from those towards gay men and, presumably, people\u2019s gender plays a more predominant role than their implicit or explicit attitudes. Further, across our studies, we found inconsistent or non-significant results concerning the participants\u2019 upper body motion as an outcome variable. A possible explanation for these inconsistent results could be due to the relatively coarse algorithmic index that we used for this INVB. Theoretical and methodological implications of this work are discussed in the General Discussion section, together with its limitations and indications for future research

Human- or object-like? Cognitive anthropomorphism of humanoid robots

Across three experiments (N = 302), we explored whether people cognitively elaborate humanoid robots as human- or object-like. In doing so, we relied on the inversion paradigm, which is an experimental procedure extensively used by cognitive research to investigate the elaboration of social (vs. non-social) stimuli. Overall, mixed-model analyses revealed that full-bodies of humanoid robots were subjected to the inversion effect (body-inversion effect) and, thus, followed a configural processing similar to that activated for human beings. Such a pattern of finding emerged regardless of the similarity of the considered humanoid robots to human beings. That is, it occurred when considering bodies of humanoid robots with medium (Experiment 1), high and low (Experiment 2) levels of human likeness. Instead, Experiment 3 revealed that only faces of humanoid robots with high (vs. low) levels of human likeness were subjected to the inversion effects and, thus, cognitively anthropomorphized. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for robotic and psychological research are discussed

Objectified conformity: working self-objectification increases conforming behavior

The present work explores whether self-objectification triggered by doing peculiar work activities would increase people’s conforming behavior. We conducted an experimental study in which participants (N = 140) were asked to perform a high objectifying activity (vs. low objectifying activity vs. baseline condition) simulating a real computer job. Afterwards, their levels of self-objectification and conforming behavior were assessed. Results revealed that participants who performed the high objectifying activity self-objectified (i.e., perceived themselves as lacking human mental states) more than the other conditions and, in turn, conformed more to the judgments of unknown similar others. Crucially, increased self-objectification mediated the effects of the high objectifying activity on enhancing conforming behavior. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed

Proxemic Behaviors During Gay/Straight Interactions: An Automated Analysis Through Kinect Depth-Sensing Camera

Through two experimental studies (N = 150), we investigated proxemic behaviors featuring gay/straight dyadic interactions. In doing so, for the first time, we relied on an IR depth camera and considered the interpersonal volume between the interactants, a novel feature that exhaustively captures interactants' proxemic behaviors. Study 1 revealed that the straight participants' implicit sexual bias - but not the explicit prejudice - significantly predicted their volume while interacting with a study accomplice who was presented as gay (vs. straight). However, unlike previous research, mixed-model analyses revealed the higher their implicit bias was, the smaller the interpersonal volume that they maintained with the gay study accomplice, especially when the conversation focused on an intergroup-related (vs. neutral) topic. Study 2 was mainly designed to deepen this main finding. Results documented that highly implicitly biased participants who maintained a smaller interpersonal volume with a gay (vs. straight) study accomplice were more cognitively depleted after the interaction than low-biased participants, possibly suggesting that highly implicitly biased straight people can control this nonverbal behavior to appear as nonprejudiced in the gay interactant's eyes. Implications for research on sexual prejudice and intergroup nonverbal behaviors are discussed