| （英） |
When we walk in pair, our walking steps come to be synchronized without notice. We reported that the behavior is essentially the same as the entrainment observed in physical world, and the amount of the entrainment correlated to interpersonal impression between the walking pair. In general, human interactions are greatly shaped by our unique psychological traits, but this is surprisingly little studied in the context of interpersonal motor synchrony. In this study, we investigated two factors known to be highly associated with motor coordination: gender and autistic traits. We found that the female pairs’ steps were more synchronized than those for the males, and higher autistic tendencies attenuated synchronous steps. Those who synchronized better evaluated their walking partners more highly than those who synchronized less well. Since the entrainment in walking step during paired walking still persists after controlling physical parameters such as weight difference and height difference, our result suggests that the entrainment in walking step is affected by non-physical factors. We proposed that walking-step synchronization could be used as a form of implicit interpersonal communication, and that the participants’ joint movements were shaped by predisposed traits and might share neural networks with social functions. |