People who move together like each other more

“Adults who engage in synchronous movement to music later report liking each other better, remembering more about each other, trusting each other more, and are more likely to cooperate with each other compared to adults who engage in asynchronous movements.”

This could be why music festivals seem to be going from strength to strength, we are just finding ways to like each other more.

In this study, they took this idea and examined it in infants to see if they exhibited prosocial behaviour – the intent to benefit others through social behaviour, or society as a whole, through behaviours like helping, sharing, donating, co-operating, and volunteering – when they bounced in time or out of time with adults.

Want to guess what they found? “Synchronous (in time) movement between infants and adults has a powerful effect on infants’ expression of directed prosocial behaviour.”

More bouncing, please!