scholarly journals A syncing feeling: Reductions in physiological arousal in response to observed social synchrony

Author(s):  
Haley E Kragness ◽  
Laura K Cirelli

Abstract Synchronized movements are often key elements in activities where social bonding and emotional connection are a shared goal, such as religious gatherings, sporting events, parties, and weddings. Previous studies have shown that synchronous movements enhance prosocial attitudes and affiliative behaviors. Similarly, observers attribute more social closeness to people moving synchronously together than people moving asynchronously. The mechanisms by which synchrony modulates these attributions are not well understood. In the present study, we ask whether viewing synchronous activities increases physiological arousal as measured by skin conductance, and whether group size impacts this effect. Undergraduates viewed a series of short videos depicting people moving either (1) in or out of synchrony with each other and (2) in a large or small group. Participants’ skin conductance was measured. Change in skin conductance levels and response counts were attenuated while watching synchronous movement, but only in the large-group condition. Post-hoc analyses suggest that viewer enjoyment/interest in the large-group synchronous videos mediated this association for phasic skin conductance responses, but no evidence of mediation was found for tonic skin conductance levels. Results extend previous research on affiliative effects of first-person interpersonal synchrony and demonstrate that watching others moving synchronously has an attenuating effect on observers’ physiological state.

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 177-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. à Campo ◽  
H.L.G.J. Merckelbach ◽  
H. Nijman ◽  
M. Yeates-Frederikx ◽  
W. Allertz

SUMMARYSkin conductance is a psychophysiological parameter that reflects fundamental processes such as attention and arousal. The present study explored whether deviations in skin conductance activity are associated with severity of schizophrenic symptoms. For this purpose, Skin Conductance Responses (SCRs) to discrete stimuli (80 dB noises) and Skin Conductance Levels (SCLs) of 37 schizophrenic patients and 31 healthy volunteers were recorded. In accordance with previous studies, schizophrenic patients were found to be hyporesponsive compared to healthy controls. More specifically, almost half of the patients (46%) did not react with any SCR to the first 3 stimuli, whereas only 10% of the control group exhibited such a non-responding. Accordingly, the mean amplitude of the first 3 SCRs – as measured in u Siemens – was found to be significantly lower in patients compared to controls. As well, mean SCL was found to be (marginally) elevated in the patient group. This was especially the case for patients who did exhibit SCRs. In the patient group, a negative correlation was found between amplitude of SCRs and symptom severity. This association was mainly carried by a significant correlation between positive symptoms and reduced SCRs. The clinical relevance of these findings is discussed in detail.


1988 ◽  
Vol 152 (5) ◽  
pp. 618-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Tarrier ◽  
Christine Barrowclough ◽  
Kathleen Porceddu ◽  
Susan Watts

The measure of expressed emotion (EE) of the relative has been found to be an important predictor of schizophrenic relapse. Electrodermal measures were recorded when the schizophrenic patient was talking to an experimenter, and when the patient was talking to a relative. Although there were no differences during the relative-absent period, patients with a high-EE relative present exhibited significantly higher frequencies of non-specific skin-conductance responses (NS-SCRs) than patients with a low-EE relative present. Patients show a significant decrease in NS-SCRs on the entry of low-EE, but not high-EE relatives. Patients with high-EE relatives show overall higher levels of skin-conductance levels (SCLs) than patients with low-EE relatives. Although patients with high-EE relatives rate themselves significantly more tense and anxious on self-rating scales, there are no significant correlations between self-ratings and electrodermal measures. The use of electrodermal reactivity as an assessment measure of relapse risk is discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Boccadoro ◽  
Lisa Wagels ◽  
Alina Theresa Henn ◽  
Philippa Hüpen ◽  
Lia Graben ◽  
...  

The Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP) has been widely used to measure reactive aggression following provocation during competitive interactions. Besides being reactive, aggression can be goal-directed (proactive aggression). Our study presents a novel paradigm to investigate proactive aggression during competitive interactions. Sixty-seven healthy participants competed in two modified versions of the TAP against an ostensible opponent while skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded. During the proactive TAP (pTAP), only the participant could interfere with the ostensible opponent’s performance by blurring the screen. In the reactive TAP (rTAP), the opponent repeatedly provoked the participant by blurring the screen of the participant, impeding their chance to win. In both versions, the blurriness levels chosen by the participant served as a measure of aggression (unprovoked in the pTAP and provoked in the rTAP). In the pTAP, trial-by-trial mixed model analyses revealed higher aggression with higher self-reported selfishness. SCRs decreased with increasing proactive aggression. An interaction effect between gender and proactive aggression for the SCRs revealed increased SCRs at higher aggression levels in females, but lower SCRs at higher aggression levels in males. In the rTAP, SCRs were not associated with reactive aggression but aggression increased with increasing provocation and especially after losing against the opponent when provoked. While males showed higher aggression levels than females when unprovoked, reactive aggression increased more strongly in females with higher provocation. Mean levels of aggression in both tasks showed a high positive correlation. Our results highlight that, despite being intercorrelated and both motivated by selfishness, proactive and reactive aggression are differentially influenced by gender and physiological arousal. Proactive aggression is related to lower physiological arousal, especially in males, with females showing the opposite association. Reactive aggressive behavior is a result of individual responses to provocation, to which females seem to be more sensitive.


2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa T. Nguyen ◽  
Senqi Hu ◽  
Gregg Gold ◽  
Brittaini Graham ◽  
Kevin Howerton

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (05) ◽  
pp. 1313-1329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Kreyßig ◽  
Agnieszka Ewa Krautz

AbstractMultiple studies on bilingualism and emotions have demonstrated that a native language carries greater emotional valence than the second language. This distinction appears to have consequences for other types of behavior, including lying. As bilingual lying has not been explored extensively, the current study investigated the psychophysiological differences between German (native language) and English (second language) in the lying process as well as in the perception of lies. The skin conductance responses of 26 bilinguals were measured during reading aloud true and false statements and listening to recorded correct and wrong assertions. The analysis revealed a lie effect, that is, statistically significant differences between valid and fictitious sentences. In addition, the values in German were higher compared to those in English, in accordance with the blunted emotional response account (Caldwell-Harris & Aycicegi-Dinn, 2009). Finally, the skin conductance responses were lower in the listening condition in comparison to the reading aloud. The results, however, are treated with caution given the fact that skin conductance monitoring does not allow assigning heightened reactivity of the skin to one exclusive cause. The responses may have been equally induced by the content of the statements, which prompted positive or negative associations in the participants’ minds or by the specific task requirements.


2009 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 1749-1754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Laine ◽  
Kevin M. Spitler ◽  
Clayton P. Mosher ◽  
Katalin M. Gothard

The amygdala plays a crucial role in evaluating the emotional significance of stimuli and in transforming the results of this evaluation into appropriate autonomic responses. Lesion and stimulation studies suggest involvement of the amygdala in the generation of the skin conductance response (SCR), which is an indirect measure of autonomic activity that has been associated with both emotion and attention. It is unclear if this involvement marks an emotional reaction to an external stimulus or sympathetic arousal regardless of its origin. We recorded skin conductance in parallel with single-unit activity from the right amygdala of two rhesus monkeys during a rewarded image viewing task and while the monkeys sat alone in a dimly lit room, drifting in and out of sleep. In both experimental conditions, we found similar SCR-related modulation of activity at the single-unit and neural population level. This suggests that the amygdala contributes to the production or modulation of SCRs regardless of the source of sympathetic arousal.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. e13307 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Sjouwerman ◽  
T. B. Lonsdorf

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-16
Author(s):  
Catarina Iria ◽  
Fernando Barbosa ◽  
Rui Paixão

Abstract. A group of offenders with antisocial personality (ASP) and a control group identified facial expressions of emotion under three conditions: monetary reward, monetary response cost, and no contingency, to explore effects on the antisocial offenders’ deficits commonly reported in these tasks. Skin Conductance Responses (SCRs) indexed emotional arousal. Offenders with ASP performed worse than controls under reward and no contingency conditions, but under the response-cost condition results were similar. The offenders with ASP presented higher SCR than the controls in the two monetary conditions. Findings suggest that offenders with ASP are hypersensitive to monetary contingencies; monetary reward seems to interfere negatively in their performance while monetary response cost improves it. Arousal level seems unable to explain ability to identify facial affects, while results suggest that methodological variations may explain the conflicting results in the literature.


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