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通常被归类为反社交且自我保护的。然而，五十余年的研究表明，人类在面临危险时往往会主动寻求社交伙伴并表现出亲社会行为。此类研究多依赖事后口头报告，而这类方法无法充分捕捉人类面对危险时的自发反应，也难以确定其社交属性。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。本研究借助一系列由鬼屋游乐设施提供的线上免费公开照片，得以考察人类面对轻度威胁时的即时反应。针对亲和行为的本质、结构及其动机关联因素，我们分析了抓握动作的分布特征——该行为既可能指向自我保护，也可能服务于他人保护。我们发现，作为一种亲和行为的抓握动作十分常见，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，尽管抓握动作的发生频率在不同群体规模下均保持相对稳定，但相互抓握的比例会随着群体规模扩大而显著下降。当可接触的同伴数量增加时，相互抓握行为便会消失，这一结果表明抓握动作最可能反映的是自我保护动机。我们还发现了年龄组间的差异：年轻个体的抓握动作更多，但极少获得对方的对等回握。此外，身处威胁最前沿的个体也极少获得他人的相互抓握。综合来看，上述结果表明，人类面对威胁时的本能反应，实则由服务于自我保护动机的亲和倾向所驱动。