In a recent post I looked at the way our brain waves tend to synchronize when we’re together for long periods.  It emerged that when the team was effective, the brain waves of each member were very tightly synchronized together, especially in areas of the brain associated with things like attention, engagement and cognitive workload.

Suffice to say, for that synchronization to be seen would require devices to measure the brain waves of each team mate.  There are other visible symptoms of such synching however, as shown by a second study from researchers at the University of Rochester.

It found that people with strong social bonds tend to copy each other’s laughter, posture and a number of other behaviors.  Interestingly however, the study found that we tend to this more when we agree with those around us, with those who are better at compromising also found to be better at mirroring those around them.

“Few people are aware that they alter their word pronunciation, speech rate, and even the structure of their sentences during conversation,” the authors say. “What we have found is that the degree to which speakers align is socially mediated.”

How we socially align

The authors tested their hypothesis by asking participants to listen to a number of ideologically charged messages.  After listening to the messages, they were then asked to describe a number of simple pictures of characters performing various tasks.

The results revealed that most people were subconsciously aligning their description of each picture with the sentence structure used in the speech they had previously listened to.  What’s more, the closeness of this alignment increased when the participant agreed with what was being said.

Now, of course the influence of ideological agreement on our speech is interesting, but the researchers were hoping to determine how social similarity was impacted by ideological matters.

They believe that we tend to align ourselves with others because aligned speech formation makes it easier for us to be understood, and of course to also understand others because our speech becomes more predictable.

Similarity is however a strong social force as we tend to like those who share particular characteristics with us.  Therefore, speaking in a similar way is one of the more subtle ways for us to communicate that we like and trust another person.

The authors contend that their findings highlight how social factors can piggy back on top of the subconscious way we align ourselves, resulting in either a strengthening or weakening of the alignment.

These two traditions–the psychological and the social–“are not necessarily competing; they can be complementary,” they conclude. “What’s been lacking in the research is a way to talk to both communities and bring them together.”