Beyond Simultaneity: Temporal Interdependence of Behaviour is Key to Affiliative Effects of Interpersonal Synchrony in Children

Abstract

Interpersonal synchrony (IS) is the temporal co-ordination of behavior during social interactions. IS acts as a social cue signifying affiliation, both when children witness IS between others and when they experience it themselves. However, it is unclear which temporal qualities of IS produce these effects, and why. We hypothesized that the simultaneity and temporal regularity of partners’ actions would each influence affiliation judgements, and that subjective perceptions of IS (‘togetherness’) would play a role in mediating these relations. In two online studies, children aged 4-11 years listened to a pair of children tapping together (witnessed IS; N=68) or themselves tapped with another child (experienced IS; N=63). Tapping partners were presented as real but were virtual. The simultaneity and regularity of their tapping was systematically manipulated across trials. For witnessed IS, both the simultaneity and regularity of partners’ tapping significantly positively affected the perceived degree of affiliation between them. These effects were mediated by the perceived togetherness of the tapping. No affiliative effects of IS were found in the experienced IS condition. Our findings suggest that both the simultaneity and regularity of partners’ actions influence children’s affiliation judgements when witnessing IS, via elicited perceptions of togetherness. We conclude that temporal interdependence – which includes but is not limited to simultaneity of action – is responsible for inducing perceptions of affiliation during witnessed IS.