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The role of group membership on the modulation of joint action

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Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to assess whether the emergence of shared representations, as indexed by the joint Simon effect, is modulated by perceived group membership. In both experiments, participants were required to perform a Simon task along another person who was perceived as belonging either to the same group or to a different group. In Experiment 1, ingroup–outgroup discrimination was obtained by dividing participants into two groups based on a superficial criterion; in Experiment 2, it was obtained by manipulating the interdependence experienced by the two acting individuals. The mere social categorization of co-acting participants into groups did not modulate the joint Simon effect which was observed even when participants believed to perform the task along with an individual belonging to a different social group (Experiment 1). On the contrary, the effect was modulated by perceived interdependence, with a null effect when participants experienced negative interdependence (Experiment 2). These results suggest that when acting in a social context, by default, individuals may perceive positive interdependence with co-acting individuals, even when cooperation is not explicitly requested.

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Notes

  1. According to the literature on achievement goals (see Poortvliet and Darnon 2010 for a review), people whose aim is to outperform others, as occurs in competitive situations, develop an “other-referenced focus” since, to monitor their progress toward the goal, they tend to compare their performance with the performance of others. On the contrary, people whose aim is to improve one’s own performance develop a “self-referenced focus” since they tend to compare their present performance with their previous performances.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Comunicazione e Economia, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Via Allegri, 9, 42100, Reggio Emilia, Italy

    Cristina Iani & Sandro Rubichi

  2. Dipartimento di Discipline della Comunicazione, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Filomena Anelli & Roberto Nicoletti

  3. Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy

    Luciano Arcuri

Authors
  1. Cristina Iani
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  2. Filomena Anelli
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  3. Roberto Nicoletti
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  4. Luciano Arcuri
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  5. Sandro Rubichi
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Correspondence to Cristina Iani.

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Iani, C., Anelli, F., Nicoletti, R. et al. The role of group membership on the modulation of joint action. Exp Brain Res 211, 439–445 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2651-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2651-x

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