Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel; The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Physiol Behav. 2021 Jun 1;235:113391. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2021.113391. Epub 2021 Mar 18.
Interpersonal physiological synchrony is the spontaneous temporal coordination of physiological processes between several individuals. This type of synchrony is critical for human relationships, as it promotes two important outcomes: the quality of the relationships between synchronized individuals, and how well synchronized individuals perform together. Nonetheless a clear estimation of the size of the correlations between interpersonal physiological synchrony and relationship or performance outcomes is missing. To address this gap in knowledge was the main goal of the current meta-analysis. We focused on interpersonal physiological synchrony in measures of autonomic nervous system activity, and specifically we examined the distinct branches of the autonomic nervous system. We conducted two meta-analyses: (1) Estimating the association between interpersonal physiological synchrony and relationship outcomes (2) Estimating the association between interpersonal physiological synchrony and performance outcomes. In the first meta-analysis (i.e., relationships), the overall estimated correlation was small with a marginal significance (ES=0.09, p>.10) and high heterogeneity (I=76.0%). In further sub-group analysis, we discovered a positive relationship for measures of sympathetic synchrony (ES=0.19, p=.02), a negative relationship for measures of parasympathetic synchrony(ES=-0.21, p=.03), and a positive relationship for measures of combined sympathetic and parasympathetic synchrony (ES =0.16, p=.02). As for the second meta-analysis (i.e., performance), the overall effect size of correlation was small (ES=0.26, p<.01) and heterogeneous (I=52.7%). Our results emphasize the small effect sizes of the correlations between physiological synchrony and performance or relational outcomes, as well as the differential effects for synchrony in sympathetic versus parasympathetic activity. Combined with the high heterogeneity, our results point to the need for a rigorous a-priori scientific approach which distinguishes between different types of physiological synchrony.
人际生理同步是指几个人之间生理过程的自发时间协调。这种同步对于人际关系至关重要，因为它促进了两个重要的结果：同步个体之间关系的质量，以及同步个体一起表现的效果。然而，人际生理同步与关系或表现结果之间的相关性的大小仍然没有明确的估计。解决这一知识差距是本次元分析的主要目标。我们专注于自主神经系统活动测量中的人际生理同步，特别是我们检查了自主神经系统的不同分支。我们进行了两项元分析：（1）估计人际生理同步与关系结果之间的关联；（2）估计人际生理同步与表现结果之间的关联。在第一项元分析（即关系）中，整体估计相关性较小，具有边缘显著性（ES=0.09，p>.10）和高度异质性（I=76.0%）。在进一步的子组分析中，我们发现交感神经同步的测量值呈正相关（ES=0.19，p=.02），副交感神经同步的测量值呈负相关（ES=-0.21，p=.03），交感神经和副交感神经同步的测量值呈正相关（ES=0.16，p=.02）。至于第二项元分析（即表现），相关的总体效应大小较小（ES=0.26，p<.01）且具有异质性（I=52.7%）。我们的研究结果强调了生理同步与表现或关系结果之间相关性的小效应大小，以及交感神经与副交感神经活动同步的差异效应。结合高度的异质性，我们的研究结果表明需要一种严格的预先科学方法，区分不同类型的生理同步。
