Joint Rhythmic Movement Increases 4-Year-Old Children’s Prosocial Sharing and Fairness Toward Peers

Abstract

The allocation of resources to a peer partner is a prosocial act that is of fundamental importance. Joint rhythmic movement, such as occurs during musical interaction, can induce positive social experiences, which may play a role in developing and enhancing young children’s prosocial skills. Here, we investigated whether joint rhythmic movement, free of musical context, increases 4-year-olds’ sharing and sense of fairness in a resource allocation task involving peers. We developed a precise procedure for administering joint synchronous experience, joint asynchronous experience, and a baseline control involving no treatment. Then we tested how participants allocated resources between self and peer. We found an increase in the generous allocation of resources to peers following both synchronous and asynchronous movement compared to no treatment. At a more theoretical level, this result is considered in relation to previous work testing other aspects of child prosociality, for example, peer cooperation, which can be distinguished from judgments of fairness in resource allocation tasks. We draw a conceptual distinction between two types of prosocial behavior: resource allocation (an other-directed individual behavior) and cooperation (a goal-directed collaborative endeavor). Our results highlight how rhythmic interactions, which are prominent in joint musical engagements and synchronized activity, influence prosocial behavior between preschool peers.

Developmental trajectory of interpersonal motor alignment: Positive social effects and link to social cognition

“…Less activation anterior parietal fMRI 7−10, n = 21 Nishimura et al, 2018 Action observation Mu suppression during observation weaker than in adults and less in allocentric compared to egocentric configuration EEG 8−12, n = 28 Nobusako et al, 2018 Automatic imitation Effect of congruency on trajectory when drawing on tablet in front of experimenter; No age effect Behavior 1.5−7, n = 42 Oberman et al, 2008 Action observation Mu (8−13 Hz) for familiar and stranger hand actions EEG 8−12, n = 13 * Oberman et al, 2013 Action observation Mu suppression during observation (not execution) gets stronger with age EEG 6−17, n = 51 * Ohnishi et al, 2004 Action observation Same network as observed in adult studies fMRI 7−10, n = 11 O’Sullivan et al, 2018 Automatic imitation Correct movement and reaction time effects (live). No age effect Behavior 3−7, n = 72 * Rabinowitch and Knafo-Noam, 2015 Synchrony Child-child synchronous rhythmic interaction increases feeling of closeness Behavior 8−9, n = 148 * Rabinowitch and Meltzoff, 2017a Synchrony Synchronous and asynchronous sway increase sharing Behavior 4, n = 162 * Rabinowitch and Meltzoff, 2017b Syn...…”

“…In four-year-old children, synchronous interactions of only three minutes may already lead to enhanced peer cooperation. In children of eight to nine years of age they enhance closeness and feelings of similarity ( Rabinowitch and Knafo-Noam, 2015 ; Rabinowitch and Meltzoff, 2017a ). These positive effects extend from synchrony in direct interaction to joint music making and rhythmic synchrony.…”

Music improves social communication and auditory–motor connectivity in children with autism

“…The positive impact of music on social skills has been demonstrated beyond ASD 21 , 22 . Typically developing children are more likely to play with another following a shared musical experience 23 and joint musical interactions can enhance emotional empathy, prosociality and bonding in children 24 – 26 . More recently, neuroimaging studies have shown that participating in musical activities engages a multimodal network of brain regions involved in hearing, movement, emotion, pleasure and memory 27 – 31 , thus allowing transfer of music-related therapeutic effects to non-musical domains 32 through structural and functional brain changes 33 , 34 .…”

Music improves social communication and brain connectivity outcomes in children with autism: A randomized controlled trial

“…Typically-developing children are more likely to play with another following a shared musical experience (39) and joint musical interactions can enhance emotional empathy, prosociality and bonding in children (40)(41)(42) and adults (43)(44)(45)(46). More recently, neuroimaging studies have shown that participating in musical activities engages a multimodal network of brain regions involved in hearing, movement, emotion, pleasure and memory (47)(48)(49), thus allowing transfer of music-related therapeutic effects to non-musical domains (50-54) through structural and functional brain changes (55)(56)(57)(58).…”