When a group dances together two things happen at once: the movements , and the body works. It is hard to tell which one does the bonding. In a dance experiment the researchers varied each separately, and measured and to the group. What contributed to what?
Both, separately. The researchers varied how synchronized the movements were and how much effort they demanded, and each contributed on its own to a higher pain threshold and a stronger sense of connection. So these are two routes and not one explanation wearing two hats. Pain threshold stood in as an indirect measure of endorphin activity.
Dancing together brings people closer, and the question is what in it does that: the coordination between the movements, or the shared effort. In the wild the two arrive together, so they have to be separated.
In the experiment the researchers varied both at once across four combinations: high or low exertion, synchronized or unsynchronized movement. That is , and it allows each factor to be examined on its own, and also whether they reinforce each other.
Each contributed separately to a higher pain threshold and a stronger sense of connection to the group. Which is to say these are two routes and not a single explanation.
Pain threshold served here as an estimate of endorphin activity, because endorphins cannot be sampled in the brain of a healthy person. That is an indirect inference, and the experiment also does not show how long the closeness lasted after the dancing stopped.
wat. In group dance, coordination in movement and shared effort each strengthened the sense of connection on its own.
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A group activity can connect people along two different routes, the shared rhythm and the effort they share.
How do we know?
Participants were divided across four dance conditions combining high or low exertion with synchronized or unsynchronized movement, a full two-factor design.
What is still unknown
Pain threshold is only an indirect measure of endorphins, and the experiment does not show how long the sense of closeness lasted after the dancing.
Learn something?
Where to next
Does walking in step actually make us cooperate?synchrony
Do the hearts of a concert audience beat together?synchrony
Is watching dance live, in a room full of people, different from watching a recording?dance