Dinner Speech - Wolfgang Tschacher

Synchrony, the coupling and entrainment of motor behavior and physiology, is a core phenomenon arising in social interaction, which is commonly outside people's awareness. We designed an algorithm to detect synchrony based on time series, and to estimate effect sizes of synchrony using surrogate tests. We also developed an application by which we can objectively read out movement from videos. Recent empirical projects have shown that movement synchrony is present in psychotherapy sessions with significant effect sizes. The quality of alliance is embodied by the degree of synchrony between therapist and patient. Embodied synchrony was also found associated with personality features of patients, with attachment and interpersonal styles. In schizophrenia, nonverbal synchrony during role plays was related to symptom profiles. In sum, research has shown that nonverbal, probably also physiological, synchrony provides important information on the interacting individuals in psychotherapy sessions as well as in everyday conversations.