Abstract

For thousands of years, human beings across the globe have gathered in groups to sing, chant, and dance together. Keeping in time with others inspires affiliative and prosocial behaviour, and promotes group cohesion. These effects might be due to perceptions of similarity towards synchronised others, as well as a general sense that the environment is a safe place for prosocial exchanges. In this context, joint engagement in rhythmic actions may also change people’s expectations of others’ behaviour in the moral domain. In particular, individuals might expect synchronous others to be more trustworthy, caring, and fair than asynchronous others. This talk explores the effects of group synchrony on social variables, and explores the ways in which keeping together in time may alter people’s judgments about others’ moral character.