How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Synchrony

Techniques > Conversation techniques > Building rapport > Synchrony

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

Synchrony occurs where people feel they are 'in tune' with each other and with their environment.

People who have achieved synchrony often unconsciously move together, for example walking in step or mirroring one another in other ways. They may well think together, finishing each other's statements and agreeing on decisions. They may even feel almost joined together, with a deep and continuously shared empathy.

True synchrony is reciprocated and symmetrical, with people feeling connected to one another rather than just one person feeling connecting to an indifferent other person.

Importantly, people in a state of synchrony feel close and connected, which is generally considered as being a pleasant sensation.

Synchrony can vary depth and duration, with some connections being limited in time and space, for example people who connect well at work but who have separate private lives.

Any number of people can be in synchrony together, from couples to business groups to football crowds.

Example

Friends understand and laugh at each others 'in-jokes'.

A family has similar sleeping and eating patterns.

A football crowd roars together and does Mexican waves.

Discussion

Synchrony, at its deepest level, is about bonding, where there is a joining of identities such that people feel like others are a part of them and are not totally separate individuals.

A result of this bonding is a natural increase in trust. If another person is just an extension of me, then I trust them as I would trust myself. And as trust is important for persuasion, then synchrony lowers the barriers for agreement.

Synchrony is not the same as rapport, for example in the way that crowds can achieve synchrony without rapport and sales people can achieve rapport with customers without being in synchrony with them.

See also

Synchrony and Cooperation, Identity, Harmony principle, Mirroring, Matching, Reflecting