People tend to overestimate the causal contribution of the self to the observed outcome in various situations, a cognitive bias known as the ' illusion of control. ' This study delves into whether this cognitive bias impacts causality judgments in animations depicting physical and social causal interactions. In two experiments, participants were instructed to associate themselves and a hypothetical stranger identity with two geometrical shapes (a circle and a square). Subsequently, they viewed animations portraying these shapes assuming the roles of agent and patient in causal interactions. Within one block, the shape related to the self served as the agent, while the shape associated with the stranger played the role of the patient. Conversely, in the other block, the identity-role association was reversed. We posited that the perception of the self as a causal agent might in fl uence explicit judgments of physical and social causality. Experiment 1 demonstrated that physical causality ratings were solely shaped by kinematic cues. In Experiment 2, emphasising social causality, the dominance of kinematic parameters was con fi rmed. Therefore, contrary to the hypothesis anticipating diminished causality ratings with speci fi c identity-role associations, results indicated negligible impact of our manipulation. The study contributes to understanding the interplay between kinematic and non -kinematic cues in human causal reasoning. It suggests that explicit judgments of causality in simple animations primarily rely on low-level kinematic cues, with the cognitive bias of overestimating the self ' s contribution playing a negligible role.
Exploring the influence of self-identification on perceptual judgments of physical and social causality
Vicovaro M.
;Dalmaso M.
2024
Abstract
People tend to overestimate the causal contribution of the self to the observed outcome in various situations, a cognitive bias known as the ' illusion of control. ' This study delves into whether this cognitive bias impacts causality judgments in animations depicting physical and social causal interactions. In two experiments, participants were instructed to associate themselves and a hypothetical stranger identity with two geometrical shapes (a circle and a square). Subsequently, they viewed animations portraying these shapes assuming the roles of agent and patient in causal interactions. Within one block, the shape related to the self served as the agent, while the shape associated with the stranger played the role of the patient. Conversely, in the other block, the identity-role association was reversed. We posited that the perception of the self as a causal agent might in fl uence explicit judgments of physical and social causality. Experiment 1 demonstrated that physical causality ratings were solely shaped by kinematic cues. In Experiment 2, emphasising social causality, the dominance of kinematic parameters was con fi rmed. Therefore, contrary to the hypothesis anticipating diminished causality ratings with speci fi c identity-role associations, results indicated negligible impact of our manipulation. The study contributes to understanding the interplay between kinematic and non -kinematic cues in human causal reasoning. It suggests that explicit judgments of causality in simple animations primarily rely on low-level kinematic cues, with the cognitive bias of overestimating the self ' s contribution playing a negligible role.Pubblicazioni consigliate
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