IOR Effects in a Social Free-Choice Task

ABSTRACT Social inhibition of return (S-IOR) refers to the finding that reaction times (RTs) are longer for movements to the same location as a partner's previous response. Wilson and Pratt (2007) found that when people acting alone freely chose their responses, they were less likely to choose a response that was spatially-compatible with a recently presented stimulus, suggesting that the processes underlying IOR effects in RT also affect response selection. The current study investigated if a similar response selection bias would occur in a free-choice S-IOR task. It was found that participants were less likely to move to the location that their partner previously contacted. This similarity in responses biases in free-choice tasks is generally consistent with the notion that similar processes underlie individual and S-IOR.