Singing together or apart: The effect of competitive and cooperative singing on social bonding within and between sub-groups of a university Fraternity.

ABSTRACT: Singing together seems to facilitate social bonding, but it is unclear whether this is true in all contexts. Here we examine the social bonding outcomes of naturalistic singing behaviour in a European university Fraternity composed of exclusive 'Cliques': recognised sub-groups of 5-20 friends who adopt a special name and identity. Singing occurs frequently in this Fraternity, both 'competitively' (contests between Cliques) and 'cooperatively' (multiple Cliques singing together). Both situations were re-created experimentally in order to explore how competitive and cooperative singing affects feelings of closeness towards others. Participants were assigned to teams of four and were asked to sing together with another team either from the same Clique or from a different Clique. Participants

SUBMITTER: Pearce E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5074360 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature