TY - JOUR
T1 - You, me, and us
T2 - maintaining self-other distinction enhances coordination, agency, and affect
AU - Fairhurst, Merle T.
AU - Tajadura-Jiménez, Ana
AU - Keller, Peter E.
AU - Deroy, Ophelia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)
PY - 2023/12/15
Y1 - 2023/12/15
N2 - Coordinating our actions with others changes how we behave and feel. Here, we provide evidence that interacting with others rests on a balance between self-other integration and segregation. Using a group walking paradigm, participants were instructed to synchronize with a metronome while listening to the sounds of 8 virtual partners. By manipulating the similarity and synchronicity of the partners’ steps to the participant's own, our novel auditory task disentangles the effects of synchrony and self-other similarity and examines their contribution to both collective and individual awareness. We measured temporal coordination (step timing regularity and synchrony with the metronome), gait patterns, and subjective reports about sense of self and group cohesion. The main findings show that coordination is best when participants hear distinct but synchronous virtual others, leading to greater subjective feelings of agency, strength, dominance, and happiness.
AB - Coordinating our actions with others changes how we behave and feel. Here, we provide evidence that interacting with others rests on a balance between self-other integration and segregation. Using a group walking paradigm, participants were instructed to synchronize with a metronome while listening to the sounds of 8 virtual partners. By manipulating the similarity and synchronicity of the partners’ steps to the participant's own, our novel auditory task disentangles the effects of synchrony and self-other similarity and examines their contribution to both collective and individual awareness. We measured temporal coordination (step timing regularity and synchrony with the metronome), gait patterns, and subjective reports about sense of self and group cohesion. The main findings show that coordination is best when participants hear distinct but synchronous virtual others, leading to greater subjective feelings of agency, strength, dominance, and happiness.
KW - Cognitive neuroscience
KW - Neuroscience
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85176137772&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108253
DO - 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108253
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85176137772
SN - 2589-0042
VL - 26
JO - iScience
JF - iScience
IS - 12
M1 - 108253
ER -