Is an Outgroup Welcome With Open Arms? Approach and Avoidance Motor Activations and Outgroup Prejudice

We examined the dynamics through which temporary motor cues of approach or avoidance directed to an outgroup member affect attitudes of majority members toward the minority outgroup. In Study 1 participants activated and maintained either arm flexion or arm extension, while facing a picture of an outgroup person wearing religious trappings. Thereafter, they filled a questionnaire which measured outgroup prejudice. Study 2 replicated this procedure while including a control condition of the arm, and measured intergroup anxiety in addition to prejudice. In the first study outgroup prejudice was significantly higher following arm extension in comparison with arm flexion. The second study revealed that the source of the arm activation effect was due to arm extension increasing prejudice rather than arm flexion reducing it. Moreover, a mediation effect was found: Arm extension (vs. control) increased intergroup anxiety, which in turn was related to higher prejudice toward the outgroup. The results reveal embodiment effects by which temporary motor cues are related to visual religious cues leading to subsequent bias toward the outgroup. Multimodal representation accounts and theories explaining the psychological processes involved in perceiving threat-cues in intergroup relations are discussed. Practical implications of the observed embodied effects are also considered. Public Significance Statement This study shows that facing a person, who appears to belong to another religious group, enhances prejudice toward that entire group, if at the same time the viewer's arm is extended to induce avoidance of contact. Intervention programs and workstation designs may help to reduce prejudice in intergroup settings by encouraging enactment of body positions which do not elicit avoidance.