Beyond perfect synchrony: shared interpersonal rhythmic timing enhances self-other merging judgements
Perfect synchrony is highly prosocial, yet interpersonal rhythms globally exhibit rich variation. In two online experiments, we tested the effect of varying interpersonal rhythms on self-other merging. First, we hypothesized that shared temporal features, acting as attentional frameworks to track an...
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| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
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| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.241501 |
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| author | Dhwani P. Sadaphal Christian R. Blum Peter E. Keller W. Tecumseh Fitch |
| author_facet | Dhwani P. Sadaphal Christian R. Blum Peter E. Keller W. Tecumseh Fitch |
| author_sort | Dhwani P. Sadaphal |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Perfect synchrony is highly prosocial, yet interpersonal rhythms globally exhibit rich variation. In two online experiments, we tested the effect of varying interpersonal rhythms on self-other merging. First, we hypothesized that shared temporal features, acting as attentional frameworks to track and integrate self-other actions, would drive combined representations. Participants viewed and rated self-other pairs producing simple rhythms, polyrhythms and irregular rhythms, at three complexity levels. Merging was unsurprisingly highest for perfect synchrony and declined with other rhythmic ratios. Crucially, simpler polyrhythms were rated higher than irregular rhythms, supporting our tracking-and-integration hypothesis. Second, we tested whether interpersonal rhythmic variation specifically affected self-other merging versus aesthetic judgements, by collecting liking ratings for the identical stimuli. We hypothesized that liking would be driven by overall perceptual features versus interpersonal features. While ratings were unaffected by simple rhythms’ ratios, polyrhythms showed a sharp decrease, suggesting that social individuation inherent in polyrhythms additionally affected aesthetic judgements. The distinct liking pattern suggested that self-other merging judgements were specifically linked to the interpersonal nature of rhythmic variation, and not mere aesthetic preferences. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that interpersonal rhythmic variation evolved to support prosocial bonds by signalling shared intentions and aiding clear self-other distinctions. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d7d9ea59da034c8fa5dbf6dc2e88ef71 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-d7d9ea59da034c8fa5dbf6dc2e88ef712025-08-20T02:56:25ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032025-03-0112310.1098/rsos.241501Beyond perfect synchrony: shared interpersonal rhythmic timing enhances self-other merging judgementsDhwani P. Sadaphal0Christian R. Blum1Peter E. Keller2W. Tecumseh Fitch3Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, AustriaDepartment of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, AustriaCenter for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, DenmarkDepartment of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, AustriaPerfect synchrony is highly prosocial, yet interpersonal rhythms globally exhibit rich variation. In two online experiments, we tested the effect of varying interpersonal rhythms on self-other merging. First, we hypothesized that shared temporal features, acting as attentional frameworks to track and integrate self-other actions, would drive combined representations. Participants viewed and rated self-other pairs producing simple rhythms, polyrhythms and irregular rhythms, at three complexity levels. Merging was unsurprisingly highest for perfect synchrony and declined with other rhythmic ratios. Crucially, simpler polyrhythms were rated higher than irregular rhythms, supporting our tracking-and-integration hypothesis. Second, we tested whether interpersonal rhythmic variation specifically affected self-other merging versus aesthetic judgements, by collecting liking ratings for the identical stimuli. We hypothesized that liking would be driven by overall perceptual features versus interpersonal features. While ratings were unaffected by simple rhythms’ ratios, polyrhythms showed a sharp decrease, suggesting that social individuation inherent in polyrhythms additionally affected aesthetic judgements. The distinct liking pattern suggested that self-other merging judgements were specifically linked to the interpersonal nature of rhythmic variation, and not mere aesthetic preferences. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that interpersonal rhythmic variation evolved to support prosocial bonds by signalling shared intentions and aiding clear self-other distinctions.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.241501self-other merginginterpersonal rhythmic variationsynchronylikingperspective-takingsocial bonding |
| spellingShingle | Dhwani P. Sadaphal Christian R. Blum Peter E. Keller W. Tecumseh Fitch Beyond perfect synchrony: shared interpersonal rhythmic timing enhances self-other merging judgements Royal Society Open Science self-other merging interpersonal rhythmic variation synchrony liking perspective-taking social bonding |
| title | Beyond perfect synchrony: shared interpersonal rhythmic timing enhances self-other merging judgements |
| title_full | Beyond perfect synchrony: shared interpersonal rhythmic timing enhances self-other merging judgements |
| title_fullStr | Beyond perfect synchrony: shared interpersonal rhythmic timing enhances self-other merging judgements |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond perfect synchrony: shared interpersonal rhythmic timing enhances self-other merging judgements |
| title_short | Beyond perfect synchrony: shared interpersonal rhythmic timing enhances self-other merging judgements |
| title_sort | beyond perfect synchrony shared interpersonal rhythmic timing enhances self other merging judgements |
| topic | self-other merging interpersonal rhythmic variation synchrony liking perspective-taking social bonding |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.241501 |
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