Empathic accuracy and interpersonal coordination: behavior matching can enhance accuracy but interactional synchrony may not

ABSTRACT

The study considered two major facets of interpersonal coordination, namely, behavior matching (posture mirroring) and interactional synchrony, and investigated whether interpersonal coordination enhanced empathic accuracy. Interactional synchrony was further classified into simultaneous movement and interaction rhythms. Participants engaged in an eight-minute conversation with a same-gender unacquainted partner and an empathic accuracy task. Each participant viewed the interaction video and reported their thoughts and feelings at pre-determined points of time. Afterward, they rewatched the video and inferred the thoughts and feelings of their partners. The study employed OpenPose, 2D pose estimation software of human body, to quantify posture and bodily movement, which were used to determine coordination. The results indicated that behavior matching was positively associated with empathic accuracy, whereas rhythmic convergence in synchrony was negatively associated with accuracy in female dyads. The additional analysis explored the temporal relationship between coordination and accuracy, which indicated a cause–effect tendency during interactions.

KEYWORDS:

• Empathic accuracy
• interpersonal coordination
• behavior matching
• interactional synchrony
• nonverbal

Acknowledgments

We thank Kikuchi, A. for the help with the data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/2t6a5/ and https://osf.io/2t6a5/.

Materials and Data reported in the study are accessible at the OSF website (open to public after the paper is accepted). However, the original video material will not be available online owing to the sensitivity of the material and the impossibility of ensuring the complete anonymization of the data. Instead, the clips of stick figures rendered by OpenPose are available. The study was not preregistered.

Open scholarship

 

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/2t6a5/ and https://osf.io/2t6a5/.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

1. As for the shared posture, LaFrance and Broadbent (1976) used the term congruence and mirroring. The congruent posture is defined as one’s right doing what the other’s right is doing while mirroring is one’s right (or left) doing what the other’s left (or right) is doing. For the posture congruency and mirroring, Bernieri & Rosenthal (1991) mentioned “In either case, there would be some degree of behavior matching” (p. 419). Since the participants sat facing each other diagonally (Figure 1), the mirrored image seems to better represent behavior matching.

2. Because of this instruction, blanks were coded as “no thoughts/feelings.” Given that the participants understand the instruction, they were sure to write down any thoughts and/or feelings they had. If they did not (left it blank), it should mean that they did not think or feel anything.

3. The model with interaction effects showed the lower AIC value (202.4) than that without interaction effects (204.3) for thought accuracy. However, the opposite was true for feeling accuracy (215.5 and 213.2, respectively) perhaps because the interaction effects did not contribute to the model.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the JSPS [18K13286].

Notes on contributors

Ken Fujiwara

Ken Fujiwara is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at National Chung Cheng University. He is interested in nonverbal behavior with a particular focus on the automated coding approach for interpersonal coordination.

Ikuo Daibo

Ikuo Daibo is Professor Emeritus at Osaka University and President of Hokusei Gakuen University. He has studied nonverbal behavior, interpersonal relationships, and well-being in society.