TY - JOUR

T1 - Beyond synchrony

T2 - Joint action in a complex production task reveals beneficial effects of decreased interpersonal synchrony

AU - Wallot, Sebastian

AU - Mitkidis, Panagiotis

AU - McGraw, John J.

AU - Roepstorff, Andreas

N1 - Funding Information: We thank C. Frith and U. Frith for discussion and comments of earlier versions of this manuscript, and L. Seitzberg and C. Larsen for assistance with carrying out the experiments. Our study would not have been possible without B. Thomsen and T. Sørensen of the LEGO Foundation. This work was supported by the Marie-Curie Initial Training Network, “TESIS: Towards an Embodied Science of InterSubjectivity” (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-ITN, 264828). Publisher Copyright: © This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.

PY - 2016/12/20

Y1 - 2016/12/20

N2 - A variety of joint action studies show that people tend to fall into synchronous behavior with others participating in the same task, and that such synchronization is beneficial, leading to greater rapport, satisfaction, and performance. It has been noted that many of these task environments require simple interactions that involve little planning of action coordination toward a shared goal. The present study utilized a complex joint construction task in which dyads were instructed to build model cars while their hand movements and heart rates were measured. Participants built these models under varying conditions, delimiting how freely they could divide labor during a build session. While hand movement synchrony was sensitive to the different tasks and outcomes, the heart rate measure did not show any effects of interpersonal synchrony. Results for hand movements show that the more participants were constrained by a particular building strategy, the greater their behavioral synchrony. Within the different conditions, the degree of synchrony was predictive of subjective satisfaction and objective product outcomes. However, in contrast to many previous findings, synchrony was negatively associated with superior products, and, depending on the constraints on the interaction, positively or negatively correlated with higher subjective satisfaction. These results show that the task context critically shapes the role of synchronization during joint action, and that in more complex tasks, not synchronization of behavior, but rather complementary types of behavior may be associated with superior task outcomes.

AB - A variety of joint action studies show that people tend to fall into synchronous behavior with others participating in the same task, and that such synchronization is beneficial, leading to greater rapport, satisfaction, and performance. It has been noted that many of these task environments require simple interactions that involve little planning of action coordination toward a shared goal. The present study utilized a complex joint construction task in which dyads were instructed to build model cars while their hand movements and heart rates were measured. Participants built these models under varying conditions, delimiting how freely they could divide labor during a build session. While hand movement synchrony was sensitive to the different tasks and outcomes, the heart rate measure did not show any effects of interpersonal synchrony. Results for hand movements show that the more participants were constrained by a particular building strategy, the greater their behavioral synchrony. Within the different conditions, the degree of synchrony was predictive of subjective satisfaction and objective product outcomes. However, in contrast to many previous findings, synchrony was negatively associated with superior products, and, depending on the constraints on the interaction, positively or negatively correlated with higher subjective satisfaction. These results show that the task context critically shapes the role of synchronization during joint action, and that in more complex tasks, not synchronization of behavior, but rather complementary types of behavior may be associated with superior task outcomes.

KW - Psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85006851462&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0168306

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0168306

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 27997558

AN - SCOPUS:85006851462

VL - 11

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

IS - 12

M1 - e0168306

ER -