Social and Physiological Context can Affect the Meaning of Physiological Synchrony.

ABSTRACT: Survival of many species, from insects and birds to human and non-human mammals, requires synchronized activity. Among humans, synchrony occurs even at the level of autonomic functioning; people interacting often show mutual, simultaneous changes in activity of the sympathetic or parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system. Critically, autonomic reactivity predicts many mental states and, when synchronized, may reflect higher-order social processes like affiliation. Here, using data from 134 strangers interacting in pairs, we manipulated two features of social context to test their impact on synchrony in sympathetic and parasympathetic reactivity. Participants completed a knot-tying task within a collective reward ("cooperation") or individual reward ("competition") framework

SUBMITTER: Danyluck C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6547677 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature