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Social cognition

Invisible mechanisms of interpersonal alignment

Nature Reviews Psychology volume 3, page 146 (2024)Cite this article

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The physical signs of being ‘socially aligned’ (having good rapport) with another person can be quite obvious — for example, when two people walk in step or adopt the same arm positions while having a conversation. These visible forms of ‘synchrony’ (matching rhythms in body movements) are believed to help people to feel that social interactions are pleasant and rewarding, thereby enhancing social alignment.

Rhythms in brain activity can also synchronize during social interactions, although this form of alignment between people is less obvious to the naked eye. This invisible form of alignment, commonly known as ‘interpersonal neural synchrony’, first caught my attention as I pondered Shamay-Tsoory and colleagues’ model of the brain networks involved in maintaining social alignment.

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References

Original article

  • Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., Saporta, N., Marton-Alper, I. Z. & Gvirts, H. Z. Herding brains: a core neural mechanism for social alignment. Trends Cogn. Sci. 23, 174–186 (2019)

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  • Moffat, R., Casale, C. E. & Cross, E. S. Mobile fNIRS for exploring inter-brain synchrony across generations and time. Front. Neuroergonomics 4, 1260738 (2024)

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  • Dikker, S., Brito, N. H. & Dumas, G. It takes a village: a multi-brain approach to studying multigenerational family communication. Develop. Cogn. Neurosci. 65, 101330 (2024)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Professorship for Social Brain Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Ryssa Moffat

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  1. Ryssa Moffat
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Correspondence to Ryssa Moffat.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Moffat, R. Invisible mechanisms of interpersonal alignment. Nat Rev Psychol 3, 146 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00284-2

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