Introduction

My job as a criminal psychologist is strictly related to interacting with others and understanding what they want to say even when they try to hide it. Almost 100 percent of my work is talking face-to-face with different people, many of which committed certain criminal act. As you can imagine, the conditions for my success almost every time are not in my favor. Making someone to speak about something they don't want to share is not an easy and pleasant task to achieve. Smart and sensitive communication techniques should be used in order to extract the truth from someone in a gentle and precise way.

Some people say that in order to catch a good liar, you have to become one. While that statement could be true, it's not the only way to do so. Spending time alone with someone, talking and behaving like they do could earn you their trust and hopefully their hones thoughts. It's a process called interpersonal synchronization.

Interpersonal synchronization or also known as the spontaneous synchronization between two indivituals of their rhythmic behavior such as walking, breathing or hand clapping is an interesting phenomenon in human interactions, which has been observed in many different social, physical, and biological systems.

Understanding this mechanism is important for human social relationships and action defining.

Behavioral synchrony

This phenomenon has been broadly researched and documented by Emily Butler, director of Health and Interpersonal Systems research group at the University of Arizona. Her studies suggest that when two people move in synchronization, feelings of trust and closeness between them are created. She defines two main forms of synchrony.

• In-phase

In this form you behave in the same way as the other person (for example crossing the same leg as you sit ).

• Anti-phase

In this form you take turns with the other person (for example talking and listening ).

According to a study conducted by researchers with the University of Colorado Boulder and University of Haifa, holding hands with another person could synchronize your brain wave patterns, breathing and heart rate with theirs.

They have examined 22 heterosexual couples who had been together for at least a year. All of them were subjected to different scenarios while being attached to an electroencephalography scan to measure their brain waves. The conditions included sitting in the same room without physical contact, sitting together with physical contact (holding hands), and sitting in separate rooms. While the experiments were conducted, the females had heat-induced pain devices on their arms.

The results of these experiments suggested that the couple which was in the same room without physical contact had slight synchronzation of their brain waves, while the ones who were allowed to touch hands, had increasing connection between them. What is interesting to note is that while males held hands with their partners they’ve become more empathetic and women felt pain relief.

On a neurological level physical contact, or hand touching, can make our brain release the mood-boosting chemical known as endorphine, while at the same time releasing oxytocin, which makes you feel more connected to the other person, and decreasing the release of cortisol (stress hormone).

After reading this study I remained skeptical about it’s results so I went searching for more information about this topic.
It turned out that Emily Butler has examined this issue. She and her colleagues support the thesis that emotions aren’t just intrapersonal states of being, but could be interpersonal, shared experiences. She refers to this term as “emotional coregulation and describes it as

The process by which relationship partners form a dyadic emotional system involving an oscillating pattern of affective arousal and dampening that dynamically maintains an optimal emotional state. It is.a bidirectional linkage of oscillating emotional channels between partners, which contributes to emotional stability for both partners.

A double edged sword

While this phenomenon could be beneficial for our relationship with our partner, it could be harmful as well. Following the same logic, it’s not surprise that a study conducted in 2011 by Robert W. Levenson and John M. Gottman, suggests that married people who have more physical contact while arguing, thus synchronized by it are experiencing more negative outcomes of their relationship.

Another study from 2010 done by Darby Saxbe and Rena L. at the Repetti University of California suggest that because of interpersonal synchronization couples tend to have similar levels of cortisol.

So basically interpersonal synchronization could successfully work both ways - negative responses would naturally drive negative responses, while more positive strengthen the bond between two individuals.

Of course interpersonal synchronization applies not only for people who are in a romantic relationship. For example the same mechanism could occur a therapist and a patient. It’s no surprise that when that happens the patient would feel more satisfied by their therapy.

While today we know that the automatic tendency to imitate others' behavior in conversations enhances empathy and social exchanges by generating attitudes of cooperation and affiliation, scientists are not sure precisely how interpersonal synchronization occurs. A lot of studies have been conducted on this topic -some of them suggest that the rоle оf the mirrоr neurоn system is in the cоre оf this mechanism while оthers claim that оur brain minimizes ‘cоding cоsts’ by reducing the mismatch between the representatiоns оf оbserved and оwn mоtоr behaviоr. True understanding of these brain mechanisms has not been achieved yet.

Conclusion

The ability to communicate with other people and truly understand them is crucial for the success in my profession (as in any other associated with human relations). While researching this topic I marked some key points for further reading and understanding which hopefully would turn into another Steemit material that I would share with you. I really hope this topic was interesting and beneficial to some of you. If it was I would love to read your comments!

CONTEST

Thanks for reading my post ! I would like to reward you for it and give you 3 SBD for your comment on this topic. The winner would be chosen when this post pays out and if there are at least 5 other comments than yours.

Sources:

[1] Why do we fall into sync with others? Interpersonal synchronization and the brain's optimization principle

[2] Marital Interaction: Physiological Linkage
and Affective Exchange

[3] Emotional Coregulation in Close Relationships

[4] Holding hands can sync brainwaves, ease pain, study shows

[5] For Better or Worse? Coregulation of Couples’ Cortisol Levels
and Mood States

Pictures:

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