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Social cognition

How mirroring body movements affects our feelings

Tschacher W, Rees GM, Ramseyer F · Frontiers in psychology · 2014

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

Moving in sync with another person during a conversation naturally boosts positive emotions and reduces negative ones, even if the interaction is competitive.

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How this study connects

Role on claims

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  • SupportsEmbodied Cognitionconcept

    Engaging in physical synchrony with another person during a conversation promotes positive affect and reduces negative emotions, regardless of whether the interaction is cooperative or competitive.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

Study at a glance

Design
Human experiment — Motion-energy synchrony across cooperative vs competitive debates in mixed-gender dyads
N
N=168 · 84 women and 84 men; mean age 27.8; mostly Swiss German-speaking students/graduates
Population
German-fluent young adults in dyadic laboratory conversations
Outcome
Nonverbal movement synchrony and its relation to affect across cooperative and competitive interactions

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How mirroring body movements affects our feelings

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168 participants

Participants ( N = 168) were 84 women and 84 men (mean age 27.8 years, SD = 4.8), with men on average 3.37 years older [ t (166) = 4.81; p < 0.0001).

84 same-sex dyads

The comparison of synchrony with pseudosynchronies derived from shuffled data demonstrated that nonverbal synchrony was significantly present at an above-chance level in this sample of 84 dyads and in all of the five interaction conditions.
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Key findings

The researchers found that physical synchrony occurred at above-chance levels in all interactions, with the highest levels seen during the humorous task. Synchrony predicted an increase in positive feelings and a decrease in negative feelings after the interactions. Analysis of the timing of these ratings suggested that physical synchrony drove the changes in emotion, rather than participants' pre-existing moods causing them to move in sync.

Methodology

Researchers recorded 168 participants paired into 84 same-sex dyads as they engaged in short discussions. These discussions included both cooperative and competitive debates on social topics, plus a final humorous task. Using automated video analysis, they tracked physical coordination and asked participants to report their emotions before and after each interaction.

Limitations

This study only included same-sex pairings, meaning the findings might not apply to interactions between men and women. Additionally, the participants were highly educated university students, which limits how well these results represent the general public. Finally, because the humorous task was always completed last, the study cannot rule out the possibility that fatigue or habituation over time influenced the high coordination and low negative affect seen in that specific task.

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