Historical and ethnographic research has shown that social dancing leads to group bonding. This project will empirically examine the interpersonal behavioral and neurochemical processes involved in dancing, to comprehensively characterize the socio-psychological benefits of social dancing. I posit that intergroup identification, bonding and prosociality are brought about by an increase in endogenous oxytocin, stemming from the high levels of interpersonal touch and interpersonal synchrony during social dancing. Using a naturalistic and intergroup paradigm to test my hypotheses, the aim of this project is to provide findings that are generalizable across social dance forms and populations, which can lead to effective intergroup, behavioral, and social cohesion interventions. This project will include the first longitudinal study to explore the neurochemical and interpersonal processes involved in social dancing. Simultaneously, to better disentangle which aspects of social dance drive such benefits, interpersonal touch and interpersonal synchrony will be directly tested as underlying mechanisms, within a cross-sectional study design.

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dance,oxytocin,methodology,synchrony