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Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research 1/2020

16-01-2018 | Original Article

The influence of passionate love on self–other discrimination during joint action

Auteurs: Virginie Quintard, Stéphane Jouffre, Jean-Claude Croizet, Cedric A. Bouquet

Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research | Uitgave 1/2020

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Abstract

Prior research on romantic relationships suggests that being in love involves a blurring of self–other cognitive boundaries. However, this research has focused so far on conceptual self-representation, related to the individual’s traits or interests. The present study tested the hypothesis that passionate love involves a reduced discrimination between the self and the romantic partner at a bodily level, as indexed by an increased Joint Simon effect (JSE), and we further examined whether this self–other discrimination correlated with the passion felt for the partner. As predicted, we found an increased JSE when participants performed the Joint Simon Task with their romantic partner compared with a friend of the opposite sex. Providing support for the self-expansion model of love (Aron and Aron in Pers Relatsh 3(1):45–58, 1996), this result indicates that romantic relationships blur the boundaries between the self and the romantic partner at a bodily level. Furthermore, the strength of romantic feelings was positively correlated with the magnitude of the JSE when sharing the task with the romantic partner.
Voetnoten
1
A power analysis based on the effect size of previous research (Müller et al., 2011a; Hommel et al., 2009) indicates that a sample size of 56 participants allowed us to detect social modulations of the Joint Simon Effect with a power greater than 0.85.
 
2
The grouping factor Participants accounted for a significant part of the variability (ICC = 32.37%, χ2(1) = 3178, p < .0.001). Not taking this factor into account in the analysis would increase the risk of type-I error (Musca et al., 2011).
 
3
As suggested by a reviewer, we conducted a complementary analysis to further explore the effect of Partner in terms of interference or facilitation. The neutral–compatible difference (facilitation) in the Romantic partner condition did not differ significantly from that in the Friend condition (3.01 ms vs. 1.87 ms, respectively, t(53) = 0.30, p = .0.764), nor did the neutral–incompatible difference (interference) (− 5.17 ms vs. − 0.72 ms, respectively, t(53) = 1.14, p = 0.256). In fact, the effect of Partner was distributed among compatible and incompatible trials, explaining why a significant modulation of the JSE occurred while no significant effects were detected in terms of facilitation or interference. However, given the limited number of neutral trials, this finding is only informative and needs to be interpreted with caution.
 
4
The mean PLS score of the participants being in love for less than 24 months [117.50, 95% CI (112.48; 122.52)] and that of the participants involved in longer relationships [114.32, 95% CI (108.68; 119.96)], did not differ significantly, t(52) = 0.86, p = 0.39. However, given that participants all scored very high on this self-reported measure; it is prudent to not draw any firm conclusion from this result.
 
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Metagegevens
Titel
The influence of passionate love on self–other discrimination during joint action
Auteurs
Virginie Quintard
Stéphane Jouffre
Jean-Claude Croizet
Cedric A. Bouquet
Publicatiedatum
16-01-2018
Uitgeverij
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Gepubliceerd in
Psychological Research / Uitgave 1/2020
Print ISSN: 0340-0727
Elektronisch ISSN: 1430-2772
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-0981-z

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