Department of Psychology, Columbia University.
Am Psychol. 2017 May-Jun;72(4):374-385. doi: 10.1037/a0040431.
Walking has myriad benefits for the mind, most of which have traditionally been explored and explained at the individual level of analysis. Much less empirical work has examined how walking with a partner might benefit social processes. One such process is conflict resolution-a field of psychology in which movement is inherent not only in recent theory and research, but also in colloquial language (e.g., "moving on"). In this article, we unify work from various fields pointing to the idea that walking together can facilitate both the intra- and interpersonal pathways to conflict resolution. Intrapersonally, walking supports various psychological mechanisms for reconciliation, including creativity, locomotion motivation, and embodied notions of forward progress. Both alone and in combination with its effects on mood and stress, walking can encourage individual mindsets conducive to resolving conflict (e.g., divergent thinking). Interpersonally, walking can allow partners to reap the cognitive, affective, and behavioral advantages of synchronous movement, such as increased positive rapport, empathy, and prosociality. Walking partners naturally adopt cooperative (as opposed to competitive) postural stances, experience shared attention, and can benefit from discussions in novel environments. Overall, despite its prevalence in conflict resolution theory, little is known about how movement influences conflict resolution practice. Such knowledge has direct implications for a range of psychological questions and approaches within negotiation and alternative mediation techniques, clinical settings, and the study of close relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record
步行对大脑有诸多益处，其中大部分益处传统上都是在个体分析层面进行探索和解释的。很少有实证研究考察与伴侣一起散步如何有益于社交过程。其中一个过程是冲突解决——心理学领域，运动不仅是最近的理论和研究的固有内容，也是日常用语的固有内容（例如，“move on”）。在本文中，我们综合了来自不同领域的工作，这些工作指出，一起散步可以促进冲突解决的个体和人际途径。从个体内部看，散步支持和解的各种心理机制，包括创造力、运动动机和前进的身体概念。单独或结合其对情绪和压力的影响，散步可以鼓励有利于解决冲突的个体思维模式（例如，发散思维）。在人际层面上，散步可以让伴侣从同步运动中获得认知、情感和行为上的好处，例如增加积极的融洽、同理心和亲社会行为。散步伴侣自然会采取合作（而不是竞争）的姿势，体验共同关注，并能从新环境中的讨论中受益。总的来说，尽管运动在冲突解决理论中很普遍，但人们对运动如何影响冲突解决实践知之甚少。这种知识直接影响到谈判和替代调解技术、临床环境以及亲密关系研究中的一系列心理问题和方法。
