Empathising and synchronising in musical interactions: A bidirectional process

Empathising with others and synchronising with their movements are essential aspects of human behaviour in social interactions, both entailing alignment with others’ actions and feelings. However, how do these processes affect one another, and what is their relationship during musical interactions, a microcosm of social experiences? This thesis addresses these questions, contributing theoretically and empirically via three journal papers investigating a hypothesised bidirectional relationship between empathy and interpersonal synchrony. Paper 1 critically reviews the existing literature and develops a theoretical framework proposing a positive feedback loop between empathising and synchronising with others in musical interactions. Subsequently, Papers 2 and 3 focus on musical interactions of adult and child musical novices, testing central predictions of the framework. The studies utilise mixed-methods approaches and examine a variety of populations to address critical knowledge gaps and provide empirical evidence for crucial unidirectional aspects of the feedback loop model. Their results suggest that empathy enhances the social bonding experience stemming from synchronous interactions in adults and facilitates interpersonal synchrony in children. Additionally, findings show that synchrony facilitates empathising between children following brief musical encounters, implying that synchronising provides social cues directing attention to partners’ movements and feelings. Overall, the thesis deepens our understanding of the complex relationship between synchrony and empathy, laying the groundwork for future empirical investigations focusing directly on the bidirectional nature of those two processes. This work also promotes new perspectives on the intertwined dynamics of social and musical behaviour, advocating for a shift from a unilateral to a bidirectional research focus and highlighting significant implications for music education.