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Cited by 75Action Observation and SynchronizationAttachment and Relationship DynamicsEvolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior

Synchronized affect in shared experiences strengthens social connection

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Cheong, Jin Hyun, Molani, Zainab, Sadhukha, Sushmita, Chang, Luke J.·2023·Communications Biology
DOI 10.1038/s42003-023-05461-2PMC PMC10613250
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Abstract

People structure their days to experience events with others. We gather to eat meals, watch TV, and attend concerts together. What constitutes a shared experience and how does it manifest in dyadic behavior? The present study investigates how shared experiences-measured through emotional, motoric, physiological, and cognitive alignment-promote social bonding. We recorded the facial expressions and electrodermal activity (EDA) of participants as they watched four episodes of a TV show for a total of 4 h with another participant. Participants displayed temporally synchronized and spatially aligned emotional facial expressions and the degree of synchronization predicted the self-reported social connection ratings between viewing partners. We observed a similar pattern of results for dyadic physiological synchrony measured via EDA and their cognitive impressions of the characters. All four of these factors, temporal synchrony of positive facial expressions, spatial alignment of expressions, EDA synchrony, and character impression similarity, contributed to a latent factor of a shared experience that predicted social connection. Our findings suggest that the development of interpersonal affiliations in shared experiences emerges from shared affective experiences comprising synchronous processes and demonstrate that these complex interpersonal processes can be studied in a holistic and multi-modal framework leveraging naturalistic experimental designs.

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  • Behavioral alignment is frequently accompanied by physiological synchrony.

    “Notably, such behavioral alignment is frequently accompanied by physiological synchrony [23, 24, 48, 104].”

    From Interpersonal Synchronization of Autonomic Physiology via Mere Visual Contact (2026) · cites this paper as [23]

    The Abstract and Results (page numbers unavailable) report aligned facial expressions and electrodermal-activity synchrony in participants sharing a TV-viewing experience. That supports co-occurrence in this setting, but the paper does not establish that behavioral alignment is frequently accompanied by physiological synchrony in general. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • IPS can predict complex social phenomena such as relationship quality, social bonding, coregulation, or empathic alignment.

    “In some studies, it was reported to predict complex social phenomena such as relationship quality, social bonding, coregulation, or empathic alignment [1, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23].”

    From Interpersonal Synchronization of Autonomic Physiology via Mere Visual Contact (2026) · cites this paper as [23]

    The Results section (‘Temporal affective synchrony and self-reported social connection’; page unavailable) reports that synchrony of positive facial expressions predicted how connected viewing partners felt, supporting the social-bonding part of the claim. Our copy does not establish that synchrony predicted relationship quality, coregulation, or empathic alignment. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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References 105 · Cited by 75

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Authors
Cheong, J. H., Molani, Z., Sadhukha, S., & Chang, L. J.
Affiliations
Dartmouth College (US)
Corresponding author
Chang, Luke J.
ORCID
Venue
Communications Biology
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2023-10-28
Volume
6
Issue
1
Pages
1099-1099
ISSN
2399-3642 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s42003-023-05461-2
PMC
PMC10613250
OpenAlex
W4388033246
Cited by
75
References
105
Citations by year
2026: 24 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6
FWCI
19.24
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Communications Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH116026)
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA053311)
  • National Science Foundation (1848370, CAREER 1848370)
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (R01MH116026)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
Keywords
collective experience, social connectedness, electrodermal activity, physiological synchrony, dyadic interaction
MeSH terms
Emotions, Humans, Interpersonal Relations

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