GENII FoundationThe Coherence Thesis

I. Interpersonal physiological alignment

 

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Last Updated:August 19, 2026

  • Boukarras, S., et al. (2025). Interpersonal physiological synchrony during dyadic joint action is increased by task novelty and reduced by social anxiety. Psychophysiology. Cardiac synchrony rises when a dyad attends to a shared challenge; social anxiety reduces it. Its relevance is limited by the study's task and population.
  • A systematic review and meta-analysis of interpersonal autonomic-nervous-system synchrony and its association with relationship and performance outcomes. Physiology & Behavior (2021). Synchrony is greater between friends than strangers in positive conditions; effects are real but heterogeneous. The author list and subgroup claims remain incomplete here.
  • Palumbo, R. V., et al. (2017). Interpersonal autonomic physiology: A systematic review of the literature. Personality and Social Psychology Review. Foundational review of physiological "linkage" across relationships; the citation should not be treated as evidence for claims beyond the review's scope.
  • "Seeing each other matters: Visual contact enhances heart-rate-variability synchrony between interaction partners" (2026 preprint). Mutual visual contact strengthens HRV synchrony. As a preprint with incomplete bibliographic details, it is not settled evidence.
  • Cardiac synchrony in parent-infant dyads during shared reading or play. SHER project, bioRxiv preprint. Early relational synchrony and its enhancement through shared attention. The evidence does not yet isolate shared attention from common task and respiration.