Behavioral coordination and synchrony contribute to a common biological mechanism that maintains communication, cooperation and bonding within many social species, such as primates and birds. Similarly, human language and social systems may also be attuned to coordination to facilitate communication and the formation of relationships. Gross similarities in movement patterns and convergence in t...

Taylor and Lobel's (1989) model of social comparison processes under threat predicts that upward affiliation (a social activity) may be useful to improve the skills and to find inspiration in coping with HIV, whereas downward evaluation (a cognitive activity) may assist someone to feel better by comparing oneself to a less fortunate person. Participants with HIV were randomly assigned, using a ...

Aims: For social psychologists, mimicry could serve a function of “social glue”, binding people together and creating harmonious relationships. Design: In three experiments, we used the paradigm of incidental similarity in order to enhance the desire to create affiliation and rapport between a participant and a stranger, and to evaluate its effect on mimicry behavior. Findings: Undergraduates w...

Spirituality involves a feeling of profound personal connection to a sacred reality (e.g., God), and is often characterized by experiences of comfort and peace. The neuropeptide oxytocin appears to be a plausible biological mediator of such spiritual experiences, as oxytocin is closely linked with social affiliation, intimacy, and stress-attenuation. Here, we investigated the relationship betwe...

Research has shown that mimicry increases the social influence of the mimicker and leads to greater liking of the mimicker. It has been proposed that mimicry is exhibited to create affiliation and rapport during social interaction. In two experiments (total N = 95) we manipulated the role of incidental similarity between two individuals on mimicry behavior. Undergraduates who believed they had ...

Three experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that the social stereotype that anger displays are more appropriate for men and smiling is requisite for women is based on the perception of men and women as more or less dominant or affiliative. The first study tested the mediation model that men are rated as more dominant and women as more affiliative and that expectations for men to sho...

OBJECTIVE Few studies have investigated the association between religion and suicide either in terms of Durkheim's social integration hypothesis or the hypothesis of the regulative benefits of religion. The relationship between religion and suicide attempts has received even less attention. METHOD Depressed inpatients (N=371) who reported belonging to one specific religion or described themse...

BACKGROUND Disaffiliation from religion is an important factor behind the rapid rise in persons claiming no religious affiliation in many advanced industrial countries. Scholars typically think of disaffiliation as a life course process that is confined to young adults, with little change occurring among older adults, yet few studies have examined this assumption outside the United States and G...

Zebrafish are small freshwater fish that inhabit the tropical waters (small lakes, rivers and streams) of Southern and Eastern portions of Asia, e.g. India and Nepal. This species has been becoming increasingly popular among behavioural neuroscientists for many reasons (e.g. [4, 15]). First, due to the past four decades of extensive developmental biology research conducted with this species, po...

This study tested the hypothesis derived from ecological theory that adaptive social perceptions of emotion expressions fuel trait impressions. Moreover, it was predicted that these impressions would be overgeneralized and perceived in faces that were not intentionally posing expressions but nevertheless varied in emotional demeanor. To test these predictions, perceivers viewed 32 untrained tar...