Data from: The nature and distribution of affiliative behaviour during exposure to mild threat

Individual reactions to danger in humans are often characterized as antisocial and self-preservative. Yet, more than fifty years of research have showed that humans often seek social partners and behave pro-socially when confronted by danger.Yet, more than fifty years of research have showed that humans seek social partners and behave pro-socially when confronted by danger. This research has relied on post-hoc verbal reports, which fall short of capturing the more spontaneous reactions to danger and determine their social nature. Real-world responses to danger are difficult to observe, due to their evanescent nature. Here, we took advantage of a series of photographs freely accessible online and provided by a haunted house attraction, which enabled us to examine the more immediate reactions to mild threat. Regarding the nature and structure of affiliative behaviour and their motivational correlates, we were able to analyse the distribution of gripping, a behaviour that could either be linked to self- or other-oriented protection. We found that gripping, an affiliative behaviour, was common, suggestive of the social nature of human immediate reactions to danger. We also found that, while gripping behaviour is quite stable across group sizes, mutual gripping dropped dramatically as group size increases. The fact that mutual gripping disappears when the number of available partners increases suggests that gripping behaviour most probably reflects a self-preservative motivation. We also found age class differences, with younger individuals showing more gripping but receiving little reciprocation. Also, the most exposed individuals received little mutual gripping. Altogether, these results suggest that primary reactions to threat in humans are driven by affiliative tendencies serving self-preservative motives.

人类面对危险时的个体反应常被归类为反社会且自我保护的行为。然而，五十余年的研究表明，人类在遭遇危险时往往会寻求社交伙伴并表现出亲社会行为。另有研究显示，人类在面对危险时同样会寻求社交伙伴并做出亲社会行为。此类过往研究多依赖事后口头报告，无法捕捉人类面对危险时更具自发性的反应，亦难以明确其社交属性。由于危险情境下的真实反应具有转瞬即逝的特性，因此难以被观测记录。本研究借助某鬼屋景区公开上传至网络的一系列实拍照片，得以对人类面对轻度威胁时的即时反应展开分析。针对亲和行为（affiliative behaviour）的本质、结构及其动机关联，我们对抓握行为的分布特征进行了分析——此类行为既可能指向自我保护，亦可能服务于对他人的保护。研究结果显示，作为一种亲和行为的抓握行为十分普遍，这表明人类面对危险时的即时反应具有社交属性。我们还发现，尽管抓握行为的发生频率在不同群体规模下大体保持稳定，但相互抓握行为的发生率会随着群体规模扩大而显著下降。当可求助的伙伴数量增加时，相互抓握行为便会消失，这一现象表明抓握行为大概率反映的是自我保护的动机。我们同时发现了年龄群体差异：年轻个体的抓握行为更多，但很少得到对方的回应。此外，身处危险情境中暴露程度最高的个体，也极少获得他人的相互抓握回应。综合来看，上述研究结果表明，人类面对威胁时的本能反应，是由服务于自我保护动机的亲和倾向所驱动的。