66 Scientific American, October 2020
that individuals blur into the greater group. The allure
is not even that much about music, he admits. March-
ing, for him, is mostly about the sense of kinship.
Many group activities boost our sense of belonging,
but research shows that doing things synchronously
can build even stronger social ties and create a greater
sense of well-being. Crew rowing, line dancing, choir
singing or simply tapping fingers in sync increases gen-
erosity, trust and tolerance toward others, often beyond
effects seen in more disorderly doings. It can even
increase people’s threshold for pain. Why simultaneous,
coordinated movement delivers this extra dose of affin-
ity is just now becoming understood, according to Lau-
ra Cirelli, a psychologist and synchrony researcher at
the University of Toronto. The phenomenon’s powerful
effects on us result from a combination of neurohor-
monal, cognitive and perceptual factors. “It’s a compli-
cated interplay,” she says. There is also evidence that
we have a propensity for synchrony that may have been
selected during the course of human evolution, in part
because it allows us to bond with large numbers of peo-
ple at once, offering a survival advantage.
People are not unique in their capability to synchro-
nize activities—certain animals do it as well. Bottlenose
dolphins arc through the water in unison, for instance,
and males of some firefly species harmonize their flash-
es. Animal behaviorists theorize that, as with humans,
these coordinated behaviors promote various positive
social benefits, like attracting a mate. What sets us apart
is that our synchrony happens across such a wide vari-
ety of behaviors. Some are organized—think of group
prayers, chorale singing, military parades and flash mobs.
Some are spontaneous—think of concertgoers clapping
in time to a song or of a couple strolling through a park,
their feet hitting the path at the exact same time. If two
people sit in rocking chairs beside each other, studies
have shown, they will impulsively start moving back and
forth in parallel.
Marx credits synchrony for his devotion to his band-
mates, and psychological experiments have shown this
kind of coordination does improve group feelings. In
one study, researchers at the University of Oxford split
young schoolchildren into two groups. One wore orange
vests and the other green vests. Such costuming can
incite divisions among kids. The experimenters, how-
ever, asked the children to spend time dancing togeth-
er synchronously. Afterward the greens and the orang-
es bonded more and played closer to each other than
similarly divided children who danced in an uncoordi-
nated way.
IMPROVED AFFINITY
It’s not just chIld’s play. A series of experiments in Hun-
gary, published in 2019, suggests that walking in sync
with a person from an ethnic minority can reduce prej-
udice. Negative stereotyping of Roma people is preva-
lent in Hungary. When researchers asked non-Roma to
assign positive or negative words to pictures of tradi-
tionally dressed Roma people, they used more negative
words. When the same group looked at pictures of tra-
ditionally dressed Hungarian people, they used more
positive words. Then the investigators asked the non-
Roma to walk laps around a large room either in sync
or out of sync with someone who was introduced as
Roma. When later the researchers asked about the vol-
unteers’ feelings toward the Roma, those who engaged PRECEDING PAGES: GETTY IMAGES
Marta Zaraska, a freelance writer based in France,
is author of Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism
and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100 (Penguin Ran
dom House, 2020). She wrote “Shrinking Animals”
in the June 2018 issue.
T
o save any of hIs marchIng bandmates, steve marx says, he would run Into onrushIng
traffic with no hesitation. It’s the kind of language often heard from former army bud-
dies, not musicians, but Marx brings up the scenario to show the strength of his feel-
ings about this group. The marching band director at Gettysburg College in Pennsyl-
vania has been participating in musical ensembles for more than 20 years, since he
was in high school, and says that “the sort of bonding that you form is extremely strong.
It’s like a family.” Everyone is in matching uniforms, musical instruments in hands,
marching forward in perfect harmony, left leg, right leg, movements and sounds so synchronized
© 2020 Scientific American © 2020 Scientific American
