How Bystanders’ Perception of Interpersonal Synchrony Shapes their Beliefs and Intentions Toward Dyads in a Naturalistic Setting

• Marques-Quinteiro, Pedro ^[1] ; Mata, André ^[2] ; Farias, Ana Rita ^[1] ; Simão, Cláudia ^[3] ; Gaspar, Rui ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidade Lusófona

     Universidade Lusófona

     Socorro, Portugal

     
  2. [2] Universidade de Lisboa

     Universidade de Lisboa

     Socorro, Portugal

     
  3. [3] Universidade Católica Portuguesa

     Universidade Católica Portuguesa

     Socorro, Portugal

     

  Mostrar afiliaciones +
• Localización: The Spanish Journal of Psychology, ISSN 1138-7416, Nº 29, 2026
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1017/sjp.2025.10018
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • Abstract This research builds on previous work showing that interpersonal synchrony in dyads is a social cue that informs bystanders about the dyads’ psychological attributes and influences their intentions to affiliate with members of dyads. Across two studies, participants were asked to observe dyads walking down a corridor during the TV show Shark Tank , rate the dyads’ collective efficacy, and express their own intentions to affiliate with them. The results replicate and extend previous work, suggesting that perceived synchrony, collective efficacy, and affiliation intentions are positively correlated, and that perceived synchrony can have positive spill-over effects on outcomes such as attracting business proposals and being liked by others.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Abele, A. E., & Yzerbyt, V. (2021). Body posture and interpersonal perception in a dyadic interaction: A Big Two analysis. European Journal...
  • Bakdash, J. Z., & Marusich, L. R. (2017). Repeated measures correlation. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 456. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00456
  • Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., & Funder, D. C. (2007). Psychology as the science of self-reports and finger movements: Whatever happened...
  • Bernieri, F. J., & Rosenthal, R. (1991). Interpersonal coordination: Behavior matching and interactional synchrony. In Feldman, R. S....
  • Cacioppo, S., Zhou, H., Monteleone, G., Majka, E. A., Quinn, K. A., Ball, A. B., Norman, G. J., Semin, G. R., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2014)....
  • Caporael, L. R. (1997). The evolution of truly social cognition: The core configurations model. Personality and Social Psychology Review,...
  • Carnevali, L., Valori, I., Mason, G., Altoè, G., & Farroni, T. (2024). Interpersonal motor synchrony in autism: A systematic review and...
  • Cialdini, R. B. (2009). We have to break up. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(1), 5–6. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01091.x
  • Cirelli, L. K. (2018). How interpersonal synchrony facilitates early prosocial behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 20, 35–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.08.009
  • Cuddy, A. J., Fiske, S. T., & Glick, P. (2008). Warmth and competence as universal dimensions of social perception: The stereotype content...
  • Cuddy, A. J. C., Wilmuth, C. A., Yap, A. J., & Carney, D. R. (2015). Preparatory power posing affects nonverbal presence and job interview...
  • daSilva, E. B., & Wood, A. (2024). How and why people synchronize: An integrated perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Review,...
  • Eisenbruch, A. B., & Krasnow, M. M. (2022). Why warmth matters more than competence: A new evolutionary approach. Perspectives on Psychological...
  • Epley, N., & Schroeder, J. (2014). Mistakenly seeking solitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(5), 1980–1999. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037323
  • Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J., & Glick, P. (2007). Universal dimensions of social cognition: Warmth and competence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences,...
  • Gorman, J. C., & Wiltshire, T. J. (2024). A typology for the application of team coordination dynamics across increasing levels of dynamic...
  • Grinspun, N., Landesman, E., García, Y., & Rabinowitch, T. C. (2025). Dance with me? Analyzing interpersonal synchrony and quality of...
  • Hayes, A. F., & Coutts, J. J. (2020). Use omega rather than Cronbach’s alpha for estimating reliability. But…. Communication Methods and...
  • Hove, M. J., & Risen, J. L. (2009). It’s all in the timing: Interpersonal synchrony increases affiliation. Social Cognition, 27(6), 949–960....
  • Hu, Y., Cheng, X., Pan, Y., & Hu, Y. (2022). The intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of interpersonal synchrony. Acta Psychologica,...
  • Jex, S. M., & Bliese, P. D. (1999). Collective efficacy beliefs as a moderator of the impact of work-related stressors: A multilevel study....
  • Jordan, P. J., & Troth, A. C. (2020). Common method bias in applied settings: The dilemma of researching in organizations. Australian...
  • Lakens, D. (2010). Movement synchrony and perceived entitativity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(5), 701–708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.03.015
  • Lakens, D., & Stel, M. (2011). If they move in sync, they must feel in sync: Movement synchrony leads to attributions of rapport and entitativity....
  • Launay, J., Dean, R. T., & Bailes, F. (2013). Synchronization can influence trust following virtual interaction. Experimental Psychology,...
  • Macpherson, M. C., Fay, N., & Miles, L. K. (2020). Seeing synchrony: A replication of the effects of task-irrelevant social information...
  • Marques-Quinteiro, P., Mata, A., Simão, C., Gaspar, R., & Farias, A. R. (2019). Observing synchrony in dyads. Social Psychology, 50, 174–184....
  • McEllin, L., & Sebanz, N. (2024). Synchrony influences estimates of cooperation in a public-goods game. Psychological Science, 35(2),...
  • Miles, L. K., Nind, L. K., Henderson, Z., & Macrae, C. N. (2010). Moving memories: Behavioral synchrony and memory for self and others....
  • Mogan, R., Fischer, R., & Bulbulia, J. A. (2017). To be in synchrony or not? A meta-analysis of synchrony’s effects on behavior, perception,...
  • O’Brien, R. G., & Kaiser, M. K. (1985). MANOVA method for analyzing repeated measures designs: an extensive primer. Psychological bulletin,...
  • Podsakoff, P. M., Podsakoff, N. P., Williams, L. J., Huang, C., & Yang, J. (2024). Common method bias: It’s bad, it’s complex, it’s widespread,...
  • Razali, N. M., & Wah, Y. B. (2011). Power comparisons of Shapiro–Wilk, Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Lilliefors and Anderson–Darling tests. Journal...
  • Reysen, S. (2005). Construction of a new scale: The Reysen Likability Scale. Social Behavior and Personality, 33(2), 201–208. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2005.33.2.201
  • Schmider, E., Ziegler, M., Danay, E., Beyer, L., & Buhner, M. (2010). Is it really robust? Reinvestigating the robustness of ANOVA against...
  • Semin, G. R., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2008). From embodied representation to co-regulation. In Pineda, J. A. (Ed.), Mirror neuron systems:...
  • Tschacher, W., Rees, G. M., & Ramseyer, F. (2014). Nonverbal synchrony and affect in dyadic interactions. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(November),...
  • Valdesolo, P., Ouyang, J., & DeSteno, D. (2010). The rhythm of joint action: Synchrony promotes cooperative ability. Journal of Experimental...
  • Vaz, A., Mata, A., & Critcher, C. R. (2025). A watched pot seems slow to boil: Why frequent monitoring decreases perceptions of progress....
  • Vicary, S., Sperling, M., Von Zimmermann, J., Richardson, D. C., & Orgs, G. (2017). Joint action aesthetics. PLoS One, 12(7), Article...
  • Wang, D., Oppewal, H., & Thomas, D. (2014). Exploring attitudes and affiliation intentions toward consumers who engage in socially shared...
  • Westfall, J., Kenny, D. A., & Judd, C. M. (2014). Statistical power and optimal design in experiments in which samples of participants...
  • Wheatley, T., Kang, O., Parkinson, C., & Looser, C. E. (2012). From mind perception to mental connection: Synchrony as a mechanism for...
  • Wilson, T. D., & Gilbert, D. T. (2005). Affective forecasting: Knowing what to want. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(3),...