Intentional synchronisation affects automatic imitation and source memory

Cross, Liam; Sebanz, Natalie

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-79796-9

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…An example of this is that synchronous walking, or cup waving and singing, results in participants making more cooperative choices in subsequent economic games, even if such choices come at a real financial cost to them [13]. Other research has shown that after moving synchronously together, participants are more likely to help their co-actors, even some time after the initial coordination task [14], as well as to conform and obey their requests [15,16], and show better memories for co-actors [17][18][19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Lost in the crowd: Imagining walking in synchrony with a crowd increases affiliation and deindividuation

2021

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Moving in time with others—interpersonal coordination—increases affiliation, helping behaviours and gives rise to a host of other prosocial outcomes. Recent research suggests that merely imagining coordination may lead to similar social effects. In the present study, participants were asked to imagine walking with a crowd in a coordinated (versus uncoordinated) way to explore the effects of imagined coordination on individuals’ perceptions of themselves and the crowd. Imagined coordination led to greater levels of deindividuation and affiliation. That is, participants were less likely to report seeing themselves as unique individuals, instead viewing themselves as a part of a group (deindividuation) and more likely to report a sense of emotional closeness (affiliation) with the imagined group. Deindividuation partially mediated the effect of imagined coordination on affiliation. This work establishes that imagined synchrony can be employed online to foster prosocial attitudes towards groups of people, and that a process of deindividuation might mediate this effect.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Lost in the crowd: Imagining walking in synchrony with a crowd increases affiliation and deindividuation

2021

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“…For instance, adults exhibit increased feelings of bonding, trust, empathy, and pro-social behaviours following interpersonal synchrony [12][13][14][15][16] . Adults are also more likely to imitate a partner after engaging in a synchronous movement task with them as compared to after performing those movements asynchronously with their partner 17 . Similarly, in children, interpersonal synchrony has been shown to facilitate pro-social sharing 18,19 and helping behaviour 5 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social context facilitates visuomotor synchrony and bonding in children and adults

Howard

Ropar

Newport

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Interpersonal synchrony is a fundamental part of human social interaction, with known effects on facilitating social bonding. Moving in time with another person facilitates prosocial behaviour, however, it is unknown if the degree of synchronisation predicts the degree of social bonding. Similarly, while people readily fall in synchrony even without being instructed to do so, we do not know whether such spontaneous synchronisation elicits similar prosocial effects as instructed synchronisation. Across two studies, we investigated how context (social vs non-social stimulus) and instruction (instructed vs uninstructed) influenced synchronisation accuracy and bonding with the interaction partner in adults and children. The results revealed improved visuomotor synchrony within a social, compared to non-social, context in adults and children. Children, but not adults, synchronised more accurately when instructed to synchronise than when uninstructed. For both children and adults, synchronisation in a social context elicited stronger social bonding towards an interaction partner as compared to synchronisation in a non-social context. Finally, children’s, but not adults’, degree of synchrony with the partner was significantly associated with their feelings of social closeness. These findings illuminate the interaction of sensorimotor coupling and joint action in social contexts and how these mechanisms facilitate synchronisation ability and social bonding.

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“…Synchrony is a basic process in human communication that takes place immediately after birth within mother–child interactions 7 . It has a crucial role in the process of forming interpersonal relationships 8 , 9 and serves as an integral part of our social behavior and cognition 1 , 10 . Specifically, motor synchrony facilitates pro-social behavior 11 , 12 as well as enhances liking 13 – 15 , trust 16 , and cohesion 13 , 17 , 18 between individuals interacting face-to-face.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtual social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic: the effect of interpersonal motor synchrony on social interactions in the virtual space

Gvirts

Ehrenfeld

Sharma

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Although the link between motor synchrony and emotional alignment has been extensively studied during face-to-face interaction, the question of whether this association also exists in virtual settings has remained unanswered. Here, we examined whether this link exists during virtual social interactions and whether pro-social effects will be induced during those interactions. To this end, two strangers shared difficulties they have experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic during a virtual social interaction that included both audio and video. The findings revealed that motor synchrony and emotional alignment can arise spontaneously during a virtual social interaction between two strangers. Moreover, this interaction yielded a decrease in negative affect and an increase in positive affect, as well as an increase in feelings of trust, liking, cohesion, self-other overlap, and similarity between the strangers. Finally, a higher level of synchrony during the virtual interaction was specifically associated with increased positive emotional alignment and liking. It can thus be presumed that virtual social interactions may share similar characteristics and social effects as face-to-face interactions. Considering the tremendous changes the COVID-19 pandemic has caused regarding social communication, these findings may provide grounds for developing new intervention protocols aimed at dealing with the consequences of social distancing.

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Intentional synchronisation affects automatic imitation and source memory

Cited by 7 publications

References 56 publications

Lost in the crowd: Imagining walking in synchrony with a crowd increases affiliation and deindividuation

Lost in the crowd: Imagining walking in synchrony with a crowd increases affiliation and deindividuation

Social context facilitates visuomotor synchrony and bonding in children and adults

Virtual social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic: the effect of interpersonal motor synchrony on social interactions in the virtual space

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