Geers Laurie, Coello Yann
Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9193 - SCALab - Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, Lille, France.
Front Neurosci. 2022 Nov 11;16:991578. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.991578. eCollection 2022.
Interacting with objects and people requires specifying localized spaces where these interactions can take place. Previous studies suggest that the space for interacting with objects (i.e., the peripersonal space) contributes to defining the space for interacting with people (i.e., personal and interpersonal spaces). Furthermore, situational factors, such as wearing a face mask, have been shown to influence social spaces, but how they influence the relation between action and social spaces and are modulated by individual factors is still not well understood. In this context, the present study investigated the relationship between action peripersonal and social personal and interpersonal spaces in participants approached by male and female virtual characters wearing or not wearing a face mask. We also measured individual factors related to the behavioral immune system, namely willingness to take risks, perceived infectability and germ aversion. The results showed that compared to peripersonal space, personal space was smaller and interpersonal space was larger, but the three spaces were positively correlated. All spaces were altered by gender, being shorter when participants faced female characters. Personal and interpersonal spaces were reduced with virtual characters wearing a face mask, especially in participants highly aversive to risks and germs. Altogether, these findings suggest that the regulation of the social spaces depends on the representation of action peripersonal space, but with an extra margin that is modulated by situational and personal factors in relation to the behavioral immune system.
与物体和人进行互动需要指定这些互动能够发生的局部空间。先前的研究表明，与物体互动的空间（即个人周边空间）有助于界定与他人互动的空间（即个人空间和人际空间）。此外，诸如佩戴口罩等情境因素已被证明会影响社交空间，但它们如何影响行动与社交空间之间的关系以及如何受到个体因素的调节仍未得到充分理解。在此背景下，本研究调查了在被佩戴或未佩戴口罩的男性和女性虚拟角色接近的参与者中，行动个人周边空间与社交个人空间和人际空间之间的关系。我们还测量了与行为免疫系统相关的个体因素，即冒险意愿、感知易感性和细菌厌恶。结果表明，与个人周边空间相比，个人空间较小，人际空间较大，但这三个空间呈正相关。所有空间都因性别而改变，当参与者面对女性角色时空间会变窄。佩戴口罩的虚拟角色会使个人空间和人际空间缩小，尤其是在对风险和细菌高度厌恶的参与者中。总之，这些发现表明，社交空间的调节取决于行动个人周边空间的表征，但还有一个额外的幅度会受到与行为免疫系统相关的情境和个人因素的调节。
