Why Can Moving in Sync Make People Feel Closer?

When two people who barely know each other walk side by side, their pace may gradually align. Conversation can then feel easier, and each person may experience the other as being more on the same side. This behavioural synchrony is more than visual neatness. Each person is continually predicting the other's next movement and adjusting their own timing. Attention, action and feedback form a shared rhythm, temporarily reducing uncertainty in the interaction.

Experiments have asked participants to tap together, walk at the same pace or sway in time, then measured closeness, cooperation or helping. A meta-analysis across varied experiments found that synchrony was associated overall with stronger prosocial outcomes, although the effect differed with the task, measure and study design. This supports the causal possibility that synchrony can foster affiliation; it does not show that matching movements must create trust.

Walking together remains a useful example. If one person repeatedly surges ahead while the other catches up, both must keep correcting. Once their pace settles, coordination costs fall and each becomes a more predictable partner. Yet brief synchrony cannot replace long-term reliability, compatible values or genuine care. Much of the research uses controlled, short encounters, and cooperation measured there may not persist in real relationships. Synchrony is a modest social cue, not a button for manipulating attachment.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.03.009