Publications

Shaheed Azaad, Natalie Sebanz (2023) · Scientific Reports

Contextual cues have been shown to inform our understanding and predictions of others’ actions. In this study, we tested whether observers’ predictions about unfolding actions depend upon the social context in which they occur. Across five experiments, we showed participants videos of an actor walking toward a piece of furniture either with (joint context) or without (solo context) a partner standing by it. We found greater predictive bias, indicative of stronger action expectations when videos contained a second actor (Experiment 1), even when the solo condition had a perceptually-matched control object in place of the actor (Experiment 2). Critically, belief manipulations about the actions the walking actor would perform suppressed the difference between social context conditions when the manipulation specified an action possible in both contexts (Experiment 5) but not when the action...

Shaheed Azaad, Natalie Sebanz (2023) · Psychological Research

In a recent Psychological Research article, Eaves et al. (2022) review the literature on how motor imagery (MI) practice combined with action observation (AO) enhances motor performance. The authors propose that the synchronous form of AO and MI (AOMI) affords unique benefits to performance that are not possible when the two interventions are performed asynchronously. We discuss three questions raised by Eaves et al.’s review: (1) are there any clear advantages to synchronous AOMI? (2) Are there super-additive benefits to AOMI, and if so, are they unique to synchronous AOMI? (3) How might coordinative AOMI, in which people imagine complementary actions, facilitate joint actions?

Michael R. Donner, Shaheed Azaad, Garth A. Warren, Simon M. Laham (2022) · Emotion Review

Disgust seems to play an important role in moral judgment. However, it is unclear whether the role of disgust in moral judgment is limited to certain kinds of moral domains (versus many) and/or certain types of disgust (versus many). To clarify these questions, we conducted a multilevel meta-analysis ( k = 512; N = 72,443) on relations between trait disgust sensitivity and moral judgment (disgust-immorality association). Main analyses revealed a significant overall mean disgust-immorality association ( r = .23). Additionally, moderator analyses revealed significant specificity in disgust type and moral domain (grounded in Moral Foundations Theory): effects were stronger for (a) sexual disgust compared to pathogen disgust, (b) sanctity moral judgments compared to other domains of moral judgments, and (c) sexual-sanctity associations compared to other disgust type-moral domain pairings.

Shaheed Azaad, Günther Knoblich, Natalie Sebanz (2021) · Cambridge University Press

Even the simplest social interactions require us to gather, integrate, and act upon, multiple streams of information about others and our surroundings. In this Element, we discuss how perceptual processes provide us with an accurate account of action-relevant information in social contexts. We overview contemporary theories and research that explores how: (1) individuals perceive others' mental states and actions, (2) individuals perceive affordances for themselves, others, and the dyad, and (3) how social contexts guide our attention to modulate what we perceive. Finally, we review work on the cognitive mechanisms that make joint action possible and discuss their links to perception.