Social effects of interpersonal synchronization during listening to music compared to a metronome: What can we learn from implicit measures?
Stupacher, J., Witte, M. & Wood, G. (2016). Social effects of interpersonal synchronization during listening to music compared to a metronome: What can we learn from implicit measures? In The 9th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology (SysMus16), Jyväskylän yliopisto, June 8-10 2016 : programme, abstracts & proceedings. Department of Music, University of Jyväskylä & Finnish Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-6708-6
Date
2016Copyright
© the Authors & International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology, 2016.
Interpersonal coordination, such as simultaneous rhythmic movement, is a fundamental way to form
socioemotional connections. The social and emotional power of music might further strengthen such
interpersonal bonds. Here, we tested if interpersonal synchronization (synchronous vs. asynchronous
finger-tapping) affects sympathy and helpfulness more strongly when listening to music compared to a
metronome. We tested 40 participants and used an explicit and an implicit measure to assess their social
orientation toward a tapping partner (i.e., one of two experimenters). Participants directly rated the
friendliness of the experimenter on a 9-point Likert scale. As a more indirect or implicit measure of social
orientation, we counted the number of pencils (out of a total of eight) that the participants collected after
the experimenter “accidentally” dropped them. After five seconds, the experimenter started to help the
participants or collected the pencils herself. Results of the pencil test showed that participants were more
helpful toward an experimenter who tapped synchronously compared to asynchronously. Importantly,
this result was completely driven by the effect of interpersonal synchrony during listening to music.
When listening to music, participants collected 38 pencils (M = 3.80, SD = 3.29) after tapping in
interpersonal synchrony compared to only 13 pencils (M = 1.30, SD = 2.67) after tapping
asynchronously. No such effect was found for the metronome. The results of explicit ratings of the
experimenter’s friendliness, however, did not confirm these effects. The direct ratings might have been
more strongly influenced by social desirability or related motivational distortions. Since music is a
product of social interactions and might even be the result of evolutionary adaptation, we conclude that
especially during listening to music, interpersonal synchrony or asynchrony can fulfill or violate hardwired
social expectations. Additionally, we could show that implicit or indirect measures can help
elucidate how music, movement and prosocial behavior are connected.
...


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Department of Music, University of Jyväskylä & Finnish Centre for Interdisciplinary Music ResearchIs part of publication
The 9th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology (SysMus16), Jyväskylän yliopisto, June 8-10 2016 : programme, abstracts & proceedings, ISBN 978-951-39-6708-6Metadata
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