Research Hit: Weak Social Connections Increase Brain Synchrony
In a surprise it was discovered that weak social connections show higher brain synchrony than strong social connections.
Remind me, us, what brain synchrony is?
Inter-brain synchrony, as it should be called, is a process that at first glance sounds amazing and fascinating. I’ve reported on this previously a number of times.
It is the process whereby different people’s brain synchronise when doing activities together. This means that their brain patterns look remarkably similar. This also explains that “being on the same wavelength” feeling, or being collectively in the zone, for example at a concert.
Research has shown that this can predict many things such as team effectiveness in business, and collective positive ratings of a live music performance, or even interaction between baby and mother.
Yes, that does sound amazing! So wouldn’t better friends have higher brain synchrony?
Well, yes, and this is why this research is fascinating. Yuto Kurihara et al. of Waseda University in Tokyo Japan investigated the differences in brain synchrony doing a simple task between people who knew each other and those that didn’t.
And what happened?
Well, the opposite to what has been shown before (or rather this hasn’t actually been researched in this way previously). In the 21 pairs of people 10 who were strangers, and 11 who know each other, brain synchrony was higher in the strangers!
Oh why was that?
It might be counter-intuitive. But it seem likely that with strangers you make more of an effort to get the task right collaboratively so both pairs are exerting more effort which results in more similar brain patterns.
This also highlights the importance of these weak social connections and also how engaging in collective tasks can build brain synchrony - and a feeling of being together.
That is interesting - but surely friends are more on the same wavelength?
Yes, that is certainly more likely. These were measurements during an individual simple task, not interacting or say, watching a movie that you both know you like together. We are also likely more attracted to those with similar brain patterns, on the same wavelength as ourselves.
But it also shows that engaging in tasks together and those weak social connections are important for social learning.
So do something with a stranger!
Yup, to help build your social connections you need to make social connections. Kind of obvious, eh!
Reference
Yuto Kurihara, Toru Takahashi, Rieko Osu.
The topology of interpersonal neural network in weak social ties.
Scientific Reports, 2024; 14 (1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-55495-7