News Finding: The findings show that sharing similar amounts of sympathetic arousal was sufficient to increase perceptions of similarity -- a precursor to friendship -- regardless of social context and no matter the arousal levels partners shared.
Paper Finding: That is, sharing similar amounts sympathetic reactivity was sufficient to increase perceptions of similarity regardless of social context and no matter the arousal levels partners shared.
News Context: Whether the social or physiological context of synchrony contributed to social outcomes, however, depended on which branch of the autonomic nervous system displayed synchrony. The findings show that sharing similar amounts of sympathetic arousal was sufficient to increase perceptions of similarity -- a precursor to friendship -- regardless of social context and no matter the arousal levels partners shared. One possible explanation for this finding is that patterns of sympathetic arousal may correlate with observable body movements (and by extension a lack of arousal may correlate with a lack of body movement) that might predict perceived similarity if shared among partners.
Paper Context: Sympathetic synchrony predicted perceived similarity between partners and this was true regardless of the social or physiological context. That is, sharing similar amounts sympathetic reactivity was sufficient to increase perceptions of similarity regardless of social context and no matter the arousal levels partners shared. Although this finding runs counter to the expectation that physiological synchrony would be most socially meaningful in the context of physiological reactivity, the finding is supported by prior work demonstrating a link between sympathetic synchrony and affiliation among strangers in similarly benign settings .