Silent disco: dancing in synchrony leads to elevated pain thresholds and social closeness

Abstract

Moving in synchrony leads to cooperative behaviour and feelings of social closeness, and dance (involving synchronisation to others and music) may cause social bonding, possibly as a consequence of released endorphins. This study uses an experimental paradigm to determine which aspects of synchrony in dance are associated with changes in pain threshold (a proxy for endorphin release) and social bonding between strangers. Those who danced in synchrony experienced elevated pain thresholds, whereas those in the partial and asynchrony conditions experienced no analgesic effects. Similarly, those in the synchrony condition reported being more socially bonded, although they did not perform more cooperatively in an economic game. This experiment suggests that dance encourages social bonding amongst co-actors by stimulating the production of endorphins, but may not make people more altruistic. We conclude that dance may have been an important human behaviour evolved to encourage social closeness between strangers.

Breaking Bread: the Functions of Social Eating

“…In respect of the evening meal, they were also asked to say how many people were present (2, 3, 4 or 5+, including themselves) and, on a simple binary choice, whether or not any of the following had occurred during the meal: laughter, reminiscences, jokes, singing, dancing, party games, drinking alcohol or eating chocolate. Laughter, singing, dancing and storytellling are all known to trigger the endorphin system Pearce et al 2015;Tarr et al 2016;Dunbar et al 2016), the main pharmacological factor underpinning social bonding in primates and humans (Curley and Keverne 2005;Depue and Morrone-Strupinsky 2005;Machin and Dunbar 2011). Alcohol is also a major trigger of the endorphin system (Naber et al 1981;Van Ree 1996;Hertz 1997;Gianoulakis 2004) -so much so that an endorphin antagonist such as naltrexone is now the treatment of choice for alcohol addiction (O'Brien et al 1996;Saland et al 2008).…”

“…There is now considerable evidence, for example, to suggest that the size and quality of one's social network has very significant consequences for one's health, susceptibility to illness (and even death), wellbeing and happiness (Holtzman et al 2004;Min et al 2007;Rodriguez-Laso et al 2007;Fowler and Christakis 2008;Dominguez and Arford 2010;Pinquart and Duberstein 2010;Holt-Lunstad et al 2010;Liu and Newschaffer 2011;Chou et al 2012;Tilvis et al 2012;Oesch and Dunbar 2015). We also know that activities such as laughter, singing and dancing all lead to an enhanced sense of bonding towards those with whom one does these activities Pearce et al 2015;Tarr et al 2015Tarr et al , 2016Manninen et al, submitted), mainly because they trigger the endorphin system in the brain that underpins primate social bonding (Panksepp et al 1997;Curley and Keverne 2005;Dunbar 2010;Machin and Dunbar 2011). Since endorphins are involved in the control of feeding (Bakshi and Kelley 1993;Zhang and Kelley 2000;DiFeliceantonio et al 2012), the very fact of eating might itself trigger the endorphin system and promote bonding, and doing so socially may lead to the same kind of enhanced endorphin effects from behavioural synchrony that have been noted in physical exercise (Cohen et al 2010).…”

‘Naltrexone Blocks Endorphins Released when Dancing in Synchrony’

“…The present study addresses this question using a silent disco paradigm as reported in Tarr et al (2016), in combination with a naltrexone-placebo double blind trial to determine whether increases in positive mood, pain threshold and self-reported social closeness between strangers following synchronised dance can be suppressed by blocking EOS function. Participants in the control and placebo conditions should experience exercise-and synchrony-induced elevation in pain threshold and mood.…”

“…For example, listening to music is associated with activity in the EOS (e.g. Blood and Zatorre 2001;Menon and Levitin 2005;Stefano et al 2004; for a review see Tarr et al 2014), and active participation in musical activities increases pain threshold, a common proxy measure of endorphin uptake (Dunbar et al 2012b;Pearce et al 2015;Tarr et al 2015Tarr et al , 2016. Specifically, dancing in synchrony (compared with non-synchronised dancing) elevates pain thresholds (Tarr et al 2015.…”

“…This is likely due to various socio-cognitive consequences of synchronising one's movements in time with others, causing participants to experience a merged sense of 'self' and 'other' (Overy and Molnar-Szakacs 2009), which facilitates the perception of groups of individuals as a coherent unit (Bentitativity^; e.g. Lakens 2010), as well as various prosocial feelings (Reddish et al 2013;Tarr et al 2015;Tarr et al 2016) and willingness to cooperate (Wiltermuth and Heath 2009). Empirical studies have confirmed that compared to those in nonsynchronised conditions, synchronous dancing increases feelings of social closeness amongst adult strangers ) and acquainted teenagers (Tarr et al 2015).…”