Reducing Movement Synchronization to Increase Interest Improves Interpersonal Liking

Synchronization has been identified as a key aspect of achieving mutual goals and enhancing social bonding. While synchronization could be maximized by increasing the predictability of an interaction, such predictability is in tension with individuals’ level of interest, which is tied to the interaction’s complexity and novelty. In this study, we tested the interplay between synchronization and interest. We asked 104 female dyads to play the Mirror Game, in which they were instructed to move their hands as coordinately as possible, and then report how much they liked each other. Utilizing information theory and video processing tools, we found that a combination of movement synchronization and complexity explained liking almost two times better than movement synchronization alone. Moreover, we found that people initiated novel and challenging interactions, even though they paid a price – being less synchronized. Examining the interactions’ dynamics, we found that people who liked each other moved in a more synchronized, complex, and novel manner during most of the interaction. This suggests that in addition to synchronization, maintaining interest may be critical for positive social bonding. Thus, we propose a new framework in which balancing synchronization and interest, rather than merely maximizing synchronization, optimizes the interaction quality.

It is written in the eyes: Inferences from pupil size and gaze orientation shape interpersonal liking

Research has shown that pupil size shapes interpersonal impressions: Individuals with dilated pupils tend to be perceived more positively than those with constricted pupils. Untested so far is the role of cognitive processes in shaping the effects of pupil size. Two pre-registered studies investigated whether the effect of pupil size is qualified by partner’s attention allocation inferred from gaze orientation. In Experiment 1 (N=50) partners with dilated pupils were more liked when gazing toward the participant, but less liked when gazing toward a disliked other. Experiment 2 (N=50) unveiled the underlying mechanism of the pupil-gaze interplay. Pupillary changes led to inferences about the feelings held by the partner towards the gazed target: larger the pupils signaled positive feelings. Crucially, target identity moderated the response of the participants (i.e., liking toward the partner). This work shows the importance of considering the interplay of affective and cognitive eye-signals when studying person perception.

Ambivalence and interpersonal liking: The expression of ambivalence as social validation of attitudinal conflict

Literature on attitude similarity suggests that sharing similar attitudes enhances interpersonal liking, but it remains unanswered whether this effect also holds for ambivalent attitudes. In the present research, we shed light on the role attitudinal ambivalence plays in interpersonal liking. Specifically, we examine whether people express ambivalence strategically to generate a positive or negative social image, and whether this is dependent on the attitudinal ambivalence of their perceiver. We test two alternative hypotheses. In line with the attitude-similarity effect, people should express ambivalence towards ambivalent others to enhance interpersonal liking, as sharing ambivalence might socially validate the latter’s experience of attitudinal conflict. On the other hand, people might express more univalence, as ambivalence may drive ambivalent others towards the resolution of their attitudinal conflict and univalent stances could help to achieve that goal. In two studies (N = 449, 149), people expressed similar attitudes to those of their perceivers, even when the latter experienced attitudinal conflict (Study 1 and 2). Moreover, they composed an essay, the message of which validated their perceiver’s attitudinal conflict (Study 2). In line with these results, we further observe that the more people experienced their ambivalence as conflicting, the more they liked others who similarly experienced attitudinal conflict (Study 1). These findings suggest that the expression of ambivalence can have important interpersonal functions, as it might lead to an enhanced social image when interacting with those coping with attitudinal conflict.

Darling, Get Closer to Me: Spatial Proximity Amplifies Interpersonal Liking

Does close distance increase liking for a social object? In a preliminary sociogram task, an association between proximity and intimacy was found in drawings of self and others. In three experimental studies, male participants consistently preferred female targets who were (actually or appeared to be) close than far from them. Distance was manipulated through various means—sitting distance (Study 2), presenting two facial images separately to each eye by a stereoscopic device (Study 3), or a video clip (Study 4). This effect was stronger among those with deprived social needs and occurred in part because close (vs. far) targets seemed psychologically more accessible to the perceiver. Our findings offer rare experimental evidence for the empirically challenged propinquity effect and provide new insights on how distance shapes inner experience.

Antecedents and consequences of peer-rated intelligence

The current study investigated the antecedents and consequences of peer-rated intelligence in a longitudinal round robin design, following previously unacquainted members of small student work groups. Results indicated that peer-reputations of intelligence were reliable, stable and weakly correlated with objective intelligence. Bias was shown by correlations with interpersonal liking (decreasing across time) and idiosyncratic rating tendencies (increasing across time). Agreement between self ratings and peer-reputations increased over time but was not based on increasing accuracy but on reciprocal associations between self-ratings and peer-reputations in the beginning of the acquaintanceship process, and on peer-reputations predicting changes in self-ratings later on. Finally, it was shown that peer-rated intelligence reputations predict academic achievement across two 4-month periods (even when tested intelligence was controlled) and dropout from university after 8 months. Overall, the pattern of results demonstrates the utility of a socioanalytic perspective in analysing personality and social processes.

Collective Emotions and Joint Action

In contemporary philosophy of collective intentionality, emotions, feelings, moods, and sentiments do not figure prominently in debates on the explanation and justification of joint action. Received philosophical theories analyze joint action in terms of common knowledge of cognitively complex, interconnected structures of intentions and action plans of the participants. These theories admit that collective emotions sometimes give rise to joint action or more typically, unplanned and uncoordinated collective behavior that falls short of full-fledged jointly intentional action. In contrast, minimalist theorists pay some attention to affective elements in joint action without much concern about their collective intentionality. They refer to an association between low-level synchrony in perceptual, motor, and behavioral processes, and increased interpersonal liking, feelings of solidarity, and cooperativeness. In this paper, we outline an account of collective emotions that can bridge this theoretical divide, linking the intentional structure of joint actions and the underlying cognitive and affective mechanisms. Collective emotions can function as both motivating and justifying reasons for jointly intentional actions, in some cases even without prior joint intentions of the participants. Moreover, they facilitate coordination in joint action.