The Evolutionary Role of Dance: Group Bonding But Not Prosocial Altruism

That synchronized activities like dancing or marching positively influence social bonding has been widely demonstrated for both dyads and small groups. However, previous studies of other social bonding behaviors (laughter and behavioral synchrony) have suggested that these prosocial effects do not extend to altruistic actions (generosity in economic games), implying that social bonding and prosociality may be underpinned by different psychological processes. Here, we ask whether dancing to music in a naturalistic (i.e., nonlaboratory) context makes people feel more socially bonded and/or more altruistic (in an economic game) compared to another real-world, exertive activity (group-based gym circuit training sessions). We found that the type of activity did not affect measures of either social bonding or generosity. However, confirming the earlier findings for laughter, we show that while any form of exertive activity elevates the sense of group bonding (entitativity), it has no effect either on ratings of willingness to act prosocially toward another individual, or on actually acting generously toward them in an economic game. Taken together, these results suggest that altruism, cooperation, and other forms of prosociality may be the outcome of creating bonded relationships and groups, rather than their cause. Public Significance Statement Dancing enhances bonding between members of a group, but does not increase willingness to behave prosocially. This adds further weight to the suggestion that social bonding and prosociality are underpinned by different psychological mechanisms. This may explain why experiments with economic games have not always yielded consistent, or especially strong, results.