Is there a dark side to moving in sync?

2 studies by USC Marshall School of Business professor find aligned action does not always lead to the common good

Moving in harmony can make people feel more connected to one another and, as a result, lead to positive collective action. Think of those feel-good vibes created in a yoga class as students move in unison through their downward-facing dogs. Yet given that synchronized physical activities are also a cornerstone of military training and are the highlights of military propaganda reels, could the interconnectedness created by coordinated action be mined to make people behave destructively instead? According to two studies conducted by Scott Wiltermuth, assistant professor of management and organization at the USC Marshall School of Business, the cohesiveness synchronized action fosters can, indeed, be manipulated for less than ideal ends.

Wiltermuth's first study, "Synchronous Activity Boosts Compliance with Requests to Aggress," which will be published in the January issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, examined whether aligned action primed participants to act aggressively to others outside their designated teams.