20yearold

Between 2005 and 2006, a pair of Israeli researchers selected twenty-four young girls and had them walk in pairs. That was it. They did not explain anything else, nor did they ask them for anything extra: essay after essay, Zivotofsky and Hausdorff they recorded the girls while they walked together. It seems trivial, but beneath those trivialities there are surprising things. And “often, a distracted gaze does not perceive it, but synchronization between people walking together is quite common.” The researchers realized that, in half of the cases (many more if they were holding hands), the girls spontaneously coordinated their steps with whoever was walking next to them. The interesting thing is that, far from being a curiosity, it is a key element of who we are as a society. It is no coincidence that robots still they have not mastered it. Human beings synchronize. It is not just the work of Zivotofsky and Hausdorff on walking in pairs, nor the studies that they have been confirming. Cardiorespiratory synchronization is well documented in social contexts (couples touchingchoirs, conversations with friends or familyetc.). They’re just two examples from a field of research that, over the past 20 years, has tracked the prosocial effects of these kinds of things. Why do we do it? There are two large brain networks that seem to be involved in all this: the mentalization network (allows us to infer intentions, beliefs and other people’s mental states) and the mirror neuron system (which, as traditionally believedare the basis of empathy; and are co-activated during joint action tasks). But none of this answers the question that interests us: why do we do it? On an evolutionary level, I say. And although there is debate about it, researchers tend to think that the prosocial benefits of this synchronization help us live in society. After all, studies suggest that walking in sync with a stranger improves your impression of them, even without speaking. It is so effective that there is no lack of studies that analyze how this motor synchrony has been historically used as a tool for group cohesion. Also in contexts of aggression, war and dehumanization of foreign groups. Two walking together. It is surprising, in this context, that Homer already defined friendship as “two walking together”. Because it is exactly that. It is also a tool to break negative dynamics. It is not automatic, it is not something direct; but going for a walk, holding hands, is a way to connect that, lately, we are abandoning. It is true that, with these studies in hand, causality is complex to determine. One can never be sure if it is the synchronization that makes us ‘fit’ or the fact that we are compatible that makes synchronization easier. However, the impact of a world in which every time we interact and we touch each other less is yet to be known. Image | Richard Bell In Xataka | Robots have a problem that no one has solved in decades: they get lost. A Spanish engineer believes she has found the key