Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This study investigated heart rate synchronization (synchronized arousal) between performers and audience in a real-life dance battle. Although similar phenomena have been observed in some rituals, no studies have been conducted on art performances, such as dance and music. We organized a dance battle and measured the heart rate of both the dancers and the audience during the actual performance. The degree of heart rate synchronization was calculated using cross-recurrence plot/cross-recurrence quantification analysis. The results show that 1) heart rate synchronization between the dancers and audience does occur in dance battles, 2) the degree of heart rate synchronization varies depending on the social relationship between the dancers and audience, and 3) the degree of heart rate synchronization dynamically changes as the performance progresses. These findings suggest that embodied, physiological, and social aspects are involved in the process of performance sharing and appreciation.