Department of Social Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2013 Nov 12;8(11):e78363. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078363. eCollection 2013.
Social interaction is fundamental to the development of various aspects of "we-ness". Previous research has focused on the role the content of interaction plays in establishing feelings of unity, belongingness and shared reality (a cluster of variables referred to as solidarity here). The present paper is less concerned with content, but focuses on the form of social interaction. We propose that the degree to which conversations flow smoothly or not is, of itself, a cue to solidarity. We test this hypothesis in samples of unacquainted and acquainted dyads who communicate via headsets. Conversational flow is disrupted by introducing a delay in the auditory feedback (vs. no delay). Results of three studies show that smoothly coordinated conversations (compared with disrupted conversations and a control condition) increase feelings of belonging and perceptions of group entitativity, independently of conversation content. These effects are driven by the subjective experience of conversational flow. Our data suggest that this process occurs largely beyond individuals' control. We conclude that the form of social interaction is a powerful cue for inferring group solidarity. Implications for the impact of modern communication technology on developing a shared social identity are discussed.
社会互动是“我们感”各个方面发展的基础。以前的研究集中于互动内容在建立团结感、归属感和共同现实感（这里称为团结的一组变量）方面的作用。本文较少关注内容，而是侧重于社会互动的形式。我们提出，对话是否流畅本身就是团结的一个线索。我们在通过耳机进行交流的陌生和熟悉的二人组样本中检验了这一假设。通过引入听觉反馈延迟（与无延迟相比）来打断对话流畅性。三项研究的结果表明，与不流畅的对话和对照条件相比，流畅协调的对话（相比之下）会增加归属感和群体同质性的感知，而与对话内容无关。这些影响是由对话流畅性的主观体验驱动的。我们的数据表明，这个过程在很大程度上超出了个体的控制。我们得出的结论是，社会互动的形式是推断群体团结的有力线索。本文还讨论了现代通信技术对发展共同社会认同的影响。
