Colombatto, Clara;
Capozzi, Francesca;
Fratino, Victoria;
Ristic, Jelena;
(2025)
A perceptual advantage for social groups in interactive configurations.
Visual Cognition
10.1080/13506285.2025.2462043.
(In press).
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Abstract
Humans have a long-standing evolutionary history of group belonging. Our visual system should thus be tuned to detect social groups, especially those in interactive or “core configurations,” where group members face each other. Past work shows that two individuals are detected more efficiently when they are facing toward (vs. away from) each other. Here we tested whether this facing advantage extends to small social groups of three, or triads. In three preregistered experiments, participants searched for a facing group (among non-facing ones) or a non-facing group (among facing ones). Facing groups were found faster than non-facing ones, demonstrating a perceptual advantage for groups in core configurations (Experiment 1). This advantage persisted in inverted displays, suggesting a role for cues to body orientation (Experiments 2 and 3). Human perception is thus well-tuned to detect not just prototypical dyadic interactions, but interactive configurations more generally, facilitating efficient processing of complex social information.
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