The relationship between interpersonal synchrony, affiliation and homophily in the wild (PhD chapter)

When a group of strangers meets, can we predict which pairs will become friends? Previous research points to the importance of similar traits and synchronised behaviour in fostering social bonding. In this study, 44 adult strangers attended one of four social events. Beforehand, participants completed personality and individual trait questionnaires. During the events, they wore mBient accelerometers on headbands while taking part in whole-group games, team games, paired conversations, and informal chats over food. Afterwards, participants rated how well they connected with each other. We synchronised the accelerometer data across participants and used wavelet coherence to quantify synchrony between each pair in each activity. Our findings revealed that people more similar in personality (as indicated by a homophily measure) exhibited greater synchrony throughout the event. Furthermore, synchrony predicted subsequent liking and mediated the effect of homophily on liking. These results demonstrate the feasibility and value of using wearable sensors to capture social interaction patterns in large groups, providing real-world evidence that synchrony drives social bonding among strangers.