Abstract
Cardiac synchrony is a crucial component of shared experiences, considered as an objective measure of emotional processes accompanying empathic interactions. No study has investigated whether cardiac synchrony among people engaged in collective situations links to the individual emotional evaluation of the shared experience. We investigated theatrical live performances as collective experiences evoking strong emotional engagement in the audience. Cross Recurrence Quantification Analysis was applied to obtain the cardiac synchrony of twelve spectators’ quartets attending to two live acting performances. This physiological measure was then correlated with spectators’ emotional intensity ratings. Results showed an expected increment in synchrony among people belonging to the same quartet during both performances attendance and rest periods. Furthermore, participants’ cardiac synchrony was found to be correlated with audience’s convergence in the explicit emotional evaluation of the performances they attended to. These findings demonstrate that the mere co-presence of other people sharing a common experience is enough for cardiac synchrony to occur spontaneously and that it increases in function of a shared and coherent explicit emotional experience.
Highlights
Cardiac synchrony is a crucial component of shared experiences, considered as an objective measure of emotional processes accompanying empathic interactions
We studied the potential increment in cardiac synchrony among spectators of the same live performances and how this spontaneous physiological synchrony could be related to spectators individual rating of performance emotional intensity
Results of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) conducted on the ratings of the monologue November 20th was found to be suitable according to the correlation matrix, overall Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (0.75) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity (P < 0.001)
Summary
Cardiac synchrony is a crucial component of shared experiences, considered as an objective measure of emotional processes accompanying empathic interactions. The occurrence of spectators’ synchronized behaviors and physiological reactions is linked to the presence of emotional and aesthetic highlights in a movie[27,28] Despite these supporting results, no study has directly investigated the potential link between spectators’ synchrony and their explicit ratings of the emotional intensity attributed to the shared artistic experience. No study has directly investigated the potential link between spectators’ synchrony and their explicit ratings of the emotional intensity attributed to the shared artistic experience This empirical question could attract widespread interest considering that from a phylogenetic perspective, which endorses biological and cultural continuity, the increased individual feelings of emotional intensity associated with behavioral and physiological synchrony are considered the ancestral drivers of the emergence of primitive and modern collective practices which foster the evolution of complex human societies[29]. At the end of the acting session, explicit evaluation of monologues emotional intensity was rated by all spectators
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