Likability's Effect on Interpersonal Motor Coordination: Exploring Natural Gaze Direction.

Zhong Zhao,Benoît G Bardy,Robin N Salesse,Mathieu Gueugnon,Ludovic Marin

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01864

Zhong Zhao, Benoît G Bardy + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01864

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Abstract

Although existing studies indicate a positive effect of interpersonal motor coordination (IMC) on likability, no consensus has been reached as for the effect of likability back onto IMC. The present study specifically investigated the causal effect of likability on IMC and explored, by tracking the natural gaze direction, the possible underlying mechanisms. Twenty-two participants were engaged in an interpersonal finger-tapping task with a confederate in three likability conditions (baseline, likable, and unlikable), while wearing an eye tracker. They had to perform finger tapping at their comfort tempo with the confederate who tapped at the same or 1.5 times of the participant’s preferred frequency. Results showed that when tapping at the same frequency, the effect of likability on IMC varied with time. Participants coordinated at a higher level in the baseline condition at the beginning of the coordination task, and a facilitative effect of likability on IMC was revealed in the last session. As a novelty, our results evidenced a positive correlation between IMC and the amount of gaze onto the coordination partner’s movement only in the likable condition. No effect of likability was found when the confederate was tapping at 1.5 times of the participant’s preferred frequency. Our research suggests that the psychosocial property of the coordinating partner should be taken into consideration when investigating the performance of IMC and that IMC is a parameter that is sensitive to multiple factors.

Highlights

In social interaction, psychological processes and behavioral activities are highly involved simultaneously
Expected Results Due to the facts that most previous studies favored a positive correlation between likability and interpersonal motor coordination (IMC), and that participants were not instructed to be bond with the confederate, we hypothesized that the coordination level in the likable condition would be higher than in the other two conditions
The Fisher’s LSD post hoc test demonstrated that the level of likability in the likable condition (2.06 ± 0.18) was significantly higher than in the baseline (1.15 ± 0.22) and unlikable conditions (0.688 ± 0.32): both p < 0.01; and baseline was significantly higher than the unlikable condition: p < 0.05

Summary

Introduction

Psychological processes and behavioral activities are highly involved simultaneously. People verbally communicate with each other, appreciate the likability of the interaction partner, and behaviorally coordinate with the person. The present study aimed at exploring whether the likability of an individual would influence interpersonal motor coordination (IMC). Likability refers to the degree of preference of a target individual by another individual (Reysen, 2005), and it indicates the quality of the interpersonal relationship. Literature refers to affiliation and rapport as synonyms of likability (Bernieri, 1988; Hove and Risen, 2009; Miles et al, 2011). We adopted Bernieri and Rosenthal’s (1991) definition of IMC, which can be broadly classified as behavioral matching and interactional synchrony

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