Unobtrusive tracking of interpersonal orienting and distance predicts the subjective quality of social interactions

Abstract

Interpersonal coordination of behaviour is essential for smooth social interactions. Measures of interpersonal behaviour, however, often rely on subjective evaluations, invasive measurement techniques or gross measures of motion. Here, we constructed an unobtrusive motion tracking system that enables detailed analysis of behaviour at the individual and interpersonal levels, which we validated using wearable sensors. We evaluate dyadic measures of joint orienting and distancing, synchrony and gaze behaviours to summarize data collected during natural conversation and joint action tasks. Our results demonstrate that patterns of proxemic behaviours, rather than more widely used measures of interpersonal synchrony, best predicted the subjective quality of the interactions. Increased distance between participants predicted lower enjoyment, while increased joint orienting towards each other during cooperation correlated with increased effort reported by the participants. Importantly, the interpersonal distance was most informative of the quality of interaction when task demands and experimental control were minimal. These results suggest that interpersonal measures of behaviour gathered during minimally constrained social interactions are particularly sensitive for the subjective quality of social interactions and may be useful for interaction-based phenotyping for further studies.

Similarity in functional brain connectivity at rest predicts interpersonal closeness in the social network of an entire village

“…This would be consistent with suggestions that misattunement between individuals disrupts the smoothness of social interactions (48) and may account for some instances of social disconnection, including, but not limited to, the social disconnection that characterizes some forms of psychopathology-that is, with the "social interaction mismatch hypothesis" (48,49). Future work could test this possibility by combining the forms of data collected in the current study with unobtrusive behavioral measures of interpersonal coordination and orienting during social interactions (50).…”

Collective music listening: Movement energy is enhanced by groove and visual social cues

“…When participants are exposed to an artificial adaptive stimulus, stimulus interactivity increases spontaneous entrainment above and beyond predictability ( Dotov et al, 2019 ; Nakata & Trainor, 2015 ). Interestingly, spontaneous synchronisation is not necessary or can even be detrimental for optimal performance depending on the task space ( Cuijpers et al, 2015 ; Lahnakoski et al, 2020 ; Wallot et al, 2016 ), again suggesting that additional forms of coordinated interactions are important. Perhaps future research should consider “generalized synchronization” ( Friston & Frith, 2015 ) or coordination ( Amazeen et al, 1995 ) as the theoretical basis of interpersonal interaction.…”

Altered effective connectivity in sensorimotor cortices is a signature of severity and clinical course in depression

“…Thus, the present neuroimaging findings could be further validated with a combination of observer rating scales and objective behavioral measures of depression (e.g., ref. 106 ).…”