The effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation

Journal of Business Research 108 (2020) 247–258

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The effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation Xiaoyin Ye, Zhaoyang Guo, Jun Ye

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Department of Marketing, School of Management, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China

A R T I C LE I N FO

A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Synchrony experience Harmony Product evaluation Embodied cognition

Synchrony, the temporal alignment of movements, pervades many aspects of human life. Existing research mostly predicts a positive effect of synchrony on synchronous partners. The current study examines whether this positive effect extends beyond co-performers to include products that are involved in synchronous performance. Drawing from theories of embodied cognition, we propose that individuals’ physical experience of synchrony leads to a more positive evaluation of products that are directly involved in the synchrony experience and that a cognitive state of harmony mediates the positive effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation. Five experiments provide convergent support for this proposition and the boundary condition of this positive effect. The positive effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation occurs only for products that are closely related to the synchrony experience.

1. Introduction Synchrony experiences pervade many aspects of daily life (Davis, 1982). We watch soldiers parading in synchronous movements and dancers performing the same actions simultaneously. We sometimes engage in synchrony with others or with an external inanimate referent. For instance, we sway our arms synchronously with our partners, and we sing in unison with others. We involuntarily align our strides with the rhythmic beat of drum that we hear, or we dance by following the tempo of the music (Franek, van Noorden, & Rezny, 2014). Moving in synchrony, that is, performing movements in a temporally related manner, seems to be a robust human tendency (Davis, 1982). For example, female friends or coworkers who spend a great deal of time together often find that their menstrual cycles tend to start on approximately the same day (Strogatz, 2003). Additionally, rituals that entail collective rhythmic coordination (e.g., chanting, dancing, singing, drumming) have played a longstanding role in social and cultural evolution (Fischer et al., 2014). As a form of behavioral coordination in social interaction, synchrony plays important roles in the functioning of human society. Past research has investigated the various social consequences of synchrony. Researchers have reported that interpersonal synchrony promotes an array of affiliative and prosocial outcomes toward synchronous partners, including affiliation (Hove & Risen, 2009), rapport (Miles, Nind, & Macrae, 2009), trust toward partners (Launay, Dean, & Bailes, 2013), partner likability (Launay, Dean, & Bailes, 2014), altruistic behavior

toward partners (Valdesolo & Desteno, 2011), emotional connections and cooperation within groups (Wiltermuth & Heath, 2009), compliance and conformist behavior (Wiltermuth, 2012), and joint action capabilities (Valdesolo, Ouyang, & DeSteno, 2010). Studies have also found that interpersonal synchrony enhances the memory of a partner’s appearance, words, and other characteristics (Hadley, Tidhar, & Woolhouse, 2012) and the conceptual merging of the self and the other (Paladino, Mazzurega, Pavani, & Schubert, 2010). A recurring theme within this literature is that synchronous actions can lead to perceptions of connectedness and to the blurring of self-other boundaries between interaction partners. However, existing research does not explicitly predict whether the general positive effect of synchrony could be extended beyond synchronous co-performers and generalized to other inanimate objects that are directly involved in the synchrony experience. For instance, when a drummer plays a drum synchronously with an external tempo, will the drummer like the drum better? If a customer synchronizes his/her steps with the rhythm of the background music in a store while he/she tries on a pair of new shoes, will he/she form a more favorable evaluation of the shoes? Scenarios such as these are common in daily life and have meaningful marketing implications. However, no research to date has examined whether the synchrony experience influences people’s evaluation of inanimate objects that are directly involved in synchrony. The purpose of this research is threefold. First, we focus on the physical experience of synchrony and examine whether it has a positive effect on inanimate objects (such as products) directly involved in the synchrony

Abbreviation:bpm, beats per minute ⁎ Corresponding author at: Rm. 630, Jiageng Building No. 2, 422 Siming South Road, School of Management, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361005, China. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (X. Ye), [email protected] (Z. Guo), [email protected] (J. Ye). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.11.024 Received 18 August 2018; Received in revised form 5 November 2019; Accepted 6 November 2019 0148-2963/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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human beings and the natural universe (Li, 2006, 2008). Harmony is probably the most cherished ideal in Chinese culture. Unfortunately, given its significance, it is arguably also the most understudied (Li, 2006). Although the scientific literature addressing the concept of harmony remains very limited, broader adoption of the concept has begun to emerge in the fields of conflict management (Leung, Koch, & Lu, 2002), corporate social responsibility (Wang & Juslin, 2009), and business mindset (Chen & Miller, 2011). Notably, harmony is no longer considered an Eastern concept; scholars have begun to appreciate its global value and apply it in Western-context-based research (Chen & Miller, 2011; Kjell, Daukantaitė, Hefferon, & Sikström, 2016; Lee, Lin, Huang, & Fredrickson, 2013). In a recent cross-national, cross-cultural well-being study of 2799 adults living in urban areas of Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, and United States, the authors found that across countries and with little variation by age and gender, happiness was predominantly identified as inner harmony at the psychological level (Fave et al., 2016). These findings suggest the need to expand the theoretical reflection on harmony, especially on the psychological level of inner harmony. This research adopts a similar perspective and focuses on individual inner harmony as the mechanism that explains the positive effect of synchrony experiences on product evaluation. We conceptualize harmony as an individual’s cognitive state of balanced and positive connectedness perceived among various facets of the self as well as between the self and the surroundings. It is achieved by coordinating different aspects in a properly cooperative manner.

experience. Second, we explore the mediating mechanism that accounts for the positive effect of the synchrony experience on the evaluation of inanimate objects. Third, we examine a boundary condition for the positive effect. 2. Theoretical background 2.1. The synchrony experience: Conceptualization The existing literature offers different definitions of synchrony. Some scholars limit the scope of synchrony to the interpersonal domain and define synchrony as the alignment in time of the periodic movements of two or more individuals (Cacioppo et al., 2014; Hove & Risen, 2009). Others take a broader view of synchrony and refer to it as behavioral adjustment or alignment with a predictable external event in an in-phase fashion (Repp, 2005). According to this definition, synchrony does not necessarily occur between individuals. A situation in which a person aligns his/her movement with an external inanimate referent (e.g., metronome, music beat) is also regarded as synchrony. Others emphasize the observable nature of synchronous events and expand the concept of synchrony to include perceived synchrony (Baron & Boudreau, 1987; Bernieri, Reznick, & Rosenthal, 1988). These scholars argue that the essential feature of synchrony is that when the elements are put together, they create a “whole” unit and “therefore can be studied as a perceptual social phenomenon, one that is not normally attended to but observable nevertheless” (Bernieri et al., 1988, p. 244). Notably, these definitions differ in the conceptual domain (participating in vs. observing a synchronous event) and in the types of external stimuli (a human referent vs. a nonhuman referent). Given the inconsistencies in the existing definition of synchrony, we provide an alternative definition of synchrony experience that encompasses these differences. We focus on the experience of synchrony instead of the behavior of synchrony and define synchrony experience as a physical experience of alignment of multiple elements achieved through the integration of an individual’s sensory and motor system. The five senses of the human body—vision, audition, olfaction, taste, and haptics—are the interface through which we experience the external world (Krishna, 2012). If synchronizing one’s movement with a partner is a way of experiencing synchrony, then observing others synchronize their movement with a drumbeat is also a way of experiencing synchrony. In the former case, the individual sees the movement of others and coordinates his/her motor system to achieve real-time alignment. The senses engaged are vision and haptics, and this process is one of integrating the senses of vision and haptics as well as the motor system. In the latter case, the individual watches the movement of others, listens to the drumbeat, and perceives the perfect alignment of people’s movement with the tempo. This process is one of integrating the senses of vision and audition. Regardless of the external stimuli involved and whether an individual participates in or observes a synchronous event, the synchrony experience is achieved through the engagement of one or more human senses and the integration of the individual’s sensory-motor system (Keller, Knoblich, & Repp, 2007; Repp, 2005).

2.3. The synchrony experience and harmony Theories of embodied cognition, which view knowledge acquisition and knowledge use as processes grounded in the brain’s modality-specific systems, suggest that cognitive representations and operations are metaphorically grounded in concrete physical experience (Barsalou, 1999; Niedenthal, Barsalou, Winkielman, Krauth-Gruber, & Ric, 2005). Rather than relying solely on amodal abstractions that exist independently of their physical instantiation, cognitive processes are intimately related to sensory and motor processes (Barsalou, 1999; Clark, 1998; Niedenthal et al., 2005; Wilson & Davey, 2002). The theory of the perceptual symbol system (PSS) provides a conceptual account for the interaction between physical experience and the process of an abstract state by emphasizing the role of simulation in cognitive processes (Barsalou, 1999). Simulation is the “reenactment of perceptual, motor, and introspective states acquired during experience with the world, body, and mind” (Barsalou, 2008, p. 618). When experience with a concept occurs for the first time, the brain captures cross-modality states and creates a multimodal representation in the memory related to the target concept. Later, when the target concept is being processed again, the cross-modality representations are reactivated to simulate the perceptual states, motor states, and introspective states related to the target concept. In summary, the embodied view suggests that physical experience serves as a direct causal input to a metaphorically linked concept. That is, abstract concepts contain multimodal representations that include perceptual states, motor states, and introspective state. The task of processing a concept requires the simulation or neural reactivation of the associated bodily state (Barsalou, 2008). The effect of a physical experience on its metaphorically related concept is regarded as an “intraconceptual mechanism” (Landau, Meier, & Keefer, 2010), which suggests that abstract concepts contain representations of the bodily states that customarily occur during interactions with concept-relevant stimuli. According to this account, the effects of physical warmth on psychological warmth (Williams & Bargh, 2008) can be explained by the fact that when individuals process the abstract concept of psychological warmth, they simulate a series of bodily or sensory experiences of physical warmth.

2.2. Harmony The concept of harmony is rooted in the ancient Chinese philosophy of Confucianism. Harmony, as understood in Confucianism, presupposes the existence of different things and implies a certain favorable relationship among them. Harmony is by its very nature relational. It is by coordinating different parties in a properly cooperative way that things flourish (Wei & Li, 2013). Harmony can occur within the individual; a person can harmonize various parts of his/her body and various pursuits in life into a well-balanced, organic whole. Harmony can occur between individuals at the level of the family, the community, the nation, and the world. Harmony can also occur between 248

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asynchrony, on the other hand, leads to higher activation in brain areas that have been shown to be related to conflict processing, i.e., the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the posterior superior temporal gyrus/sulcus. The findings confirm the notion that cognitive processes (as reflected in relevant brain area activations) are intimately related to sensory and motor processes, which is the main idea underlying all theories of embodied cognition. Moreover, the physical experience of synchrony leads to higher activation in the brain areas responsible for positive affect and perceptions of closeness with others and lower activation in the brain areas responsible for conflict processing.

Embodiment research has examined, among other things, how concrete physical cues such as sensations, body posture, or motor movements influence an individual’s cognition, emotion, and behaviors. The accumulating evidence makes a compelling case that a metaphor-consistent grounding of abstract thought in sensory experience can result in pervasive effects of bodily states on targets that are merely metaphorically related (for a review, see Landau et al., 2010; Landau, Robinson, & Meier, 2014; Lee & Schwarz, 2014). One metaphorical link that has been examined repeatedly is the association of physical and social warmth. For example, initial research on this metaphor found that people who held a warm beverage were more likely than people who held a cold beverage to think that a stranger was friendly (see also Ijzerman & Semin, 2009; Williams & Bargh, 2008). In the consumer domain, consumers in warm ambient temperatures exhibited more positive affective responses and lower perceived distance to the target product, resulting in increased product valuation (Zwebner, Lee, & Goldenberg, 2014). Similarly, a series of studies confirmed the metaphorical link between physical spatial cues and psychological concepts. Schubert (2005) found that the vertical position is generally associated with concepts of power, and this vertical representation of power is independent of affect. Meier, Hauser, Robinson, Friesen, and Schjeldahl (2007) established that people had implicit associations between up and goodness and revealed that people encoded God-related concepts faster when presented in a higher vertical position. In a later study, Giessner and Schubert (2007) highlighted the bidirectional relationship between the vertical position and power. They found that individuals judged a leader as having more power when presented with a long vertical line than when presented with a short vertical line; additionally, their vertical positioning of a leader's box in an organogram was influenced by the leader's power. Other dimensions of spatial cues, such as spatial distance, can also influence social judgments (Boot & Pecher, 2010). Specifically, individuals judged entities to be more similar to each other when they were spatially close (vs. spatially distant). Given the associations between physical experiences and metaphorically related abstract concepts, we propose that the physical experience of synchrony promotes a cognitive state of harmony. Successful synchronization requires an individual to engage in close coordination with the individual partner and the referent to achieve a relationship of perfect alignment (Todd & Lee, 2007; Todd, Lee, & O'Boyle, 2002). On the other hand, harmony emphasizes balancing and coordinating different aspects through mutual support and mutual dependence and reaching homeostasis both within one’s mind and between an individual and his/her surroundings (Kjell et al., 2016; Lee et al., 2013). Hence, the cognitive state of harmony and the physical experience of synchrony, although in different domains, share a similar metaphorical meaning: different things are harmonized into a wellcoordinated relationship. Thus, the concrete physical experience of synchrony is likely to trigger a more abstract but metaphorically related cognition of harmony. A similar rationale can be applied to explain why observing synchrony promotes harmony. For instance, when watching military parades, the physical experience of harmony mainly comes through the sense of sight (seeing soldiers performing the same actions simultaneously) or through multiple senses (e.g., seeing the perfect alignment of soldiers’ strides and hearing the alignment of drumbeats with soldiers’ footsteps). This physical experience then promotes a more abstract, cognitive state of harmony, which shares a similar metaphorical meaning. Recent synchrony-related neurological research has provided partial evidence supporting the association of the physical experience of synchrony and the cognitive state of harmony. Kühn et al. (2011) indicated that having the same emotional facial expression (whether happy or sad) activates the brain areas that have been shown to be associated with positive affect (Kringelbach, 2004) and perceptions of closeness with others (Northoff et al., 2006), i.e., the medial orbitofrontal cortex and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Emotional facial expression

2.4. Harmony and product evaluation We further posit that the positive effect through which exposure to the synchrony experience triggers the cognitive state of harmony has a spillover effect that engenders congruent (positive) evaluations of inanimate objects. This hypothesis is conceptually consistent with the implications of social-cognitive priming effects. People judge the quality of other people and objects on a daily basis. However, it is not an easy task to assess the true quality of a target object because our perception of the object can be potentially influenced by a wide range of personal and contextual factors present in the judgment situation (Wilson & Brekke, 1994). For instance, primed concepts triggered by activities preceding a judgment might bias the judge’s evaluations of the stimulus (e.g., Golding & Hauselt, 1994; Higgins, Rholes, & Jones, 1977; Martin, 1986). Even a judge’s emotional states may bias his/her judgments of a target (e.g., Berkowitz & Troccoli, 1990; Forgas & Bower, 1987; Handley et al., 2009; Petty, Schumann, Richman, & Strathman, 1993; Schwarz & Clore, 1983). The priming effect is difficult to avoid because individuals often form judgments without awareness of their unconscious and uncontrollable mental processes (Higgins, 1996; Wilson & Brekke, 1994). Activities, experiences or emotions preceding a judgment may make certain categories of information or knowledge in an individual’s memory temporarily more accessible than others and increase the likelihood that the individual will categorize the stimulus in terms of the activated category of information (Lerouge & Smeesters, 2008; Wheeler, DeMarree, & Petty, 2014). Thus, priming has the power to make cognitively accessible mental representations influence seemingly unrelated judgments and actions (Molden, 2014). For example, when an individual experiences a success (vs. a failure), he/she is motivated to think that his/her abilities are stable (vs. changeable) and to form a positive (negative) self-evaluation (Leith et al., 2014). Similarly, an individual’s cognitive state of harmony increases the accessibility of the harmony-related category in memory and thus increases the likelihood that the individual will categorize the stimulus in terms of the more accessible harmony-related information or knowledge. What are the harmony-related categories? Confucianism suggests that when myriad things in the world are harmonized, a healthy and prosperous world is achieved. When a person is harmonized within him/herself and with his/her surroundings, he/she thrives (Li, 2006; Wei & Li, 2013). Recent research on happiness and psychological well-being has posited that the lowarousal positive (LAP) affect (e.g., harmony, peaceful, and calm) represents important dimension of happiness. For instance, using both Western and Eastern participants, Kjell et al. (2016) examined the semantic representation of harmony and found that it is semantically close to such positive characteristics as psychological well-being and satisfaction with life. Using samples from America, Europe, and Oceania, Fave et al. (2016) found that harmony was the most frequently mentioned subcategory within the psychological definition of happiness. In addition, harmony in body movement is found to predict a higher “liking” rating among women (Cazzato, Siega, & Urgesi, 2012) and to signal more desired qualities, such as health (Röder, Weege, Carbon, Shackelford, & Fink, 2015). Although harmony is related to both happiness and positive affect, 249

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these constructs are conceptually distinct, and the differences have been well articulated in the literature concerning well-being. The field of well-being research has witnessed the formation of the following two relatively distinct perspectives and paradigms regarding the concepts of and pathways to well-being: the hedonic view and the eudaimonic view (Keyes, Shmotkin, & Ryff, 2002; Ryan & Deci, 2001). The hedonic view of well-being suggests that the goal of life is to experience the maximum amount of pleasure and that happiness is the totality of one’s hedonic moments. Here, subjective well-being (SWB) is the most widely used approach. SWB encompasses three core components: satisfaction with life, the presence of positive affect, and the absence of negative affect, which, together, are often summarized as happiness (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Ryan & Deci, 2001). In contrast, the eudaimonic view presents well-being as the realization of one’s true potential (Ryff & Singer, 1998, 2000). From this perspective, happiness cannot be equated to well-being because not all desires that a person might value yield well-being when achieved. Although pleasure producing, some outcomes are not good for people and will not promote well-being (Waterman, 1993). In recent years, wellbeing researchers have called for studies that expand theoretical reflections on well-being and include the dimension of inner harmony and balance. In summary, the conceptual domains of happiness, harmony, and positive affect are clearly differentiated in the well-being literature. Harmony represents a missing dimension of the current mainstream views of well-being and is defined as an individual’s cognitive state of balanced and connectedness among various facets of the self and between the self and the surroundings. It captures the relational and connectivity aspects of well-being that neither the hedonic view (happiness) nor the eudaimonic view reflect. Empirically, we provide evidence showing that harmony is distinct from the core components of happiness: satisfaction with life, the presence of positive affect, and the absence of negative affect. The results of the test are presented in study 3. In summary, the above-mentioned evidence illustrates that harmony is closely related to positive characteristics such as liking, happiness, satisfaction, and achievement. Accordingly, a cognitive experience of harmony will make these positive categories of information or knowledge in an individual’s memory temporarily more accessible than others and will increase the likelihood that the individual will form his/ her judgment of a target object in terms of these activated positive categories. In other words, the temporarily more accessible categories such as happiness, satisfaction, liking, and achievement are then used as the relevant input for the judgment of product evaluation. Based on the preceding, we expect that people with harmony are likely to evaluate an inanimate object more positively. Summarizing the above theorizing, we hypothesize the following:

on source-monitoring (for a review, see Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993) specifies the judgmental mechanisms that underlie the detection and correction of contaminating influences stemming from temporarily accessible information and knowledge. To determine whether a particular concept comes to mind because of the judgment target itself or because of the temporarily more accessible but irrelevant categories, judges often search for characteristics that are typically associated with both sources. If the source of the target product and the source of the temporarily accessible information are difficult to distinguish, judges are more likely to attribute the accessible information to the target product itself and less likely to detect bias in the judgment task (Mussweiler & Neumann, 2000). For instance, suppose that there is a potential shoe buyer trying on a pair of shoes in a store, and as he/she walks in the shoes, his/her steps synchronize with the tempo of the background music. The positive feelings associated with synchrony-induced harmony become more accessible in the customer’s mind. The customer monitors and determines whether these positive feelings came directly from wearing the shoes or from the synchrony experience that made the positive feelings more accessible. Because wearing the shoes is an inseparable part of the synchrony experience, it is relatively difficult for the customer to distinguish whether the positive feelings came from wearing the shoes or from the synchrony experience. Thus, the customer will be less likely to detect bias and more likely to attribute these positive feelings to the shoes and give them a more positive evaluation. Accordingly, we hypothesize that the positive effect of synchrony-induced harmony on product evaluation will occur for products that are directly related to the synchrony experience. In contrast, if the judgment target (e.g., shoes) and the irrelevant priming (synchrony experience) are easy to distinguish, judges will be more likely to detect the biased influence of the irrelevant priming, and they will not attribute positive feelings to the target product, nor will they give it a more positive evaluation. Take the shoes as an example again. The customer synchronizes his/her steps with the tempo of the background music while he/she walks in the shoes (shoes A) in the store. Then, a saleswoman recommends another pair of shoes (shoes B) to the customer. Because shoes B had nothing to do with his/her synchrony experience, it is easy for the customer to distinguish the judgment target (shoes B) and the priming activity (synchrony experience). Thus, the customer will be more likely to detect that these positive feelings were caused by the synchrony experience rather than by shoes B. Accordingly, he/she will not attribute these positive feelings to shoes B and will not use these feelings as input for his/her evaluation of shoes B. Thus, we hypothesize that for products that are not related to the synchrony experience, synchrony-induced harmony will have no effect on product evaluation. Based on the above, we hypothesize the following:

H1. An individual’s exposure to a synchrony experience (including participating in and observing a synchrony event) will lead to a more positive evaluation of an inanimate object.

H3. The positive effect of synchrony-induced harmony on product evaluation will occur only for products that are directly related to the synchrony experience. For products that are not related to the synchrony experience, synchrony-induced harmony will have no effect on the evaluation of the products.

H2. A cognitive state of harmony mediates the positive effect of a synchrony experience on the inanimate objects involved in the synchrony experience.

3. Overview of the studies We report on five studies that test the main effects of participating in and observing synchrony on the evaluation of an inanimate object directly involved in synchronous performance. Four of the five studies were conducted at a Chinese university in the southeastern region of the country (studies 1, 2, 3, and 5) with student samples, while study 4 was conducted online with a non-student sample. We use three different manipulations to create the synchrony experience. Specifically, we manipulate the synchrony experience through an individual’s participation in an interpersonal synchrony exercise in study 1, study 3 and study 5; an individual’s participation in a synchrony exercise with an

2.5. Boundary condition: Synchrony-related or synchrony-unrelated product In the previous section, we argued that the positive effect of harmony on the evaluation of a product was mainly due to the priming effect. That is, the experience of synchrony-induced harmony makes harmony-related categories temporarily more accessible than others, and these more accessible categories are then more likely to be used as input in the subsequent evaluation of the product even though these categories are irrelevant to the target product. The cognitive literature 250

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synchrony was found to be greater in the synchronous condition (M = 5.02, SD = 1.20) than in the asynchronous condition (M = 2.77, SD = 1.37; F(1, 117) = 90.39, p < .01, d = 1.76). Product evaluations between the slower and faster asynchronous groups were compared, and no difference was found (Masynchrony_faster = 3.70, SD = 1.06 vs. Masynchrony_slower = 3.76, SD = 0.82; t(60) = −0.23, p = .82). Accordingly, the two groups were combined into a single asynchronous group for the subsequent analysis. The results of a one-way ANOVA with the average ratings of the armband as the dependent variable revealed a significant main effect (F(2, 170) = 7.59, p < .01, d = 0.42). The planned contrasts revealed that the average product evaluation of the participants in the synchronous condition (M = 4.39, SD = 1.08) was significantly greater than that in the asynchronous condition (M = 3.73, SD = 0.94; t(170) = 3.66, p < .01, d = 0.56) and significantly greater than that in the control condition (M = 3.83, SD = 0.91; t(170) = 2.99, p = < .01, d = 0.46). In addition, product evaluations were not found to differ between the asynchronous and control conditions (t(170) = −0.57, p = .57). No significant differences between the three conditions were found in the reports of physical exhaustion (Msynchrony = 2.91, SD = 1.38, Masynchrony = 2.85, SD = 1.21, Mcontrol = 3.07, SD = 1.50; F(2, 170) = 0.39, p = .68), psychological exhaustion (Msynchrony = 2.98, SD = 1.34, Masynchrony = 2.60, SD = 1.26, Mcontrol = 2.93, SD = 1.41; F (2, 170) = 1.45, p = .24), mood (Msynchrony_happy = 4.11, SD = 1.52, Masynchrony_happy = 4.53, SD = 1.16, Mcontrol_happy = 4.22, SD = 1.24; F (2, 170) = 1.70, p = .19; Msynchrony_nervous = 3.19, SD = 1.81, Masynchrony_nervous = 2.81, SD = 1.41, Mcontrol_nervous = 3.20, SD = 1.55; F(2, 170) = 1.20, p = .30), and task difficulty (Msynchrony = 1.82, SD = 0.81, Masynchrony = 1.98, SD = 0.91, Mcontrol = 1.85, SD = 0.81; F (2, 170) = 0.61, p = .55).

external inanimate referent in study 2; and an individual observing synchrony events in study 4. Thus, the purpose of the five studies and the synchrony experience manipulation is as follow. Study 1 tests the main effect of the synchrony experience (participating in an interpersonal synchrony event) on an inanimate object directly involved in synchronous performance. Study 2 replicates the main effect in the synchrony experience in which an individual synchronizes with an external inanimate referent, thus ruling out the alternative explanation of the influence of human relationships. Study 3 tests the mediating mechanism of harmony in interpersonal synchrony experiences and the boundary condition of a synchrony-related vs. synchrony-unrelated product. Study 4 replicates the main effect of synchrony and the mediating effect of harmony when subjects experience synchrony by observing rather than participating in synchronous events. Study 5 provides further support for the mediating mechanism of harmony by testing the moderating effect of relationship compatibility on the synchrony-product evaluation path. 3.1. Study 1 The purpose of study 1 was to test the main effect of the synchrony experience on an inanimate object. 3.1.1. Method A total of 173 students (109 females, mean age 19.03) participated in the study in exchange for academic credit. They were randomly assigned to conditions in a one-factor (synchronous vs. asynchronous vs. control) between-subjects design. The participants were told that the task was to evaluate the wearability of an armband for a smartphone during exercise. Each participant wore an armband on his/her right arm during the task. A student peer trained the participants to perform three simple exercises involving head, arm, and leg movements at a standard speed. The participants were given three trial rounds to become familiar with the movements. In the synchronous condition, the participants were shown a video in which an actor performed a sequence of movements. Then, the participants were told to perform the same movements, in the same way, and at the same pace as the actor. In the asynchronous condition, the procedure was the same except that the actor in the video performed the exercise much faster or slower than the pace at which the participants were trained. The participants were randomly assigned to the slower or faster versions of the video. They were instructed to perform the exercise at the speed at which they were trained; as a result, their movements were not in synchrony with the actor in the video. A student peer observed each participant and classified the participant as unqualified if the participant moved asynchronously with the actor in the synchronous condition and if the participant moved synchronously with the actor in the asynchronous condition. The unqualified cases were not used in the data analysis. In the control condition, the actor in the video stood still without any movement while the participants were instructed to perform the movement at the pace at which they were trained. After completing the task, the participants were told to indicate the extent to which they liked the armband using a scale developed by Förster (2004) in terms of likeability (like, satisfied, favorable, attractive; α = 0.84). They also responded to questions about the exercise task (e.g., task difficulty) and about their state (overall mood, psychological exhaustion, and physical exhaustion). Finally, the participants reported the extent to which they felt that they had performed the exercise synchronously with the actor in the video as a manipulation check of the synchrony experience. All judgments were reported via Likert scales ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree).

3.1.3. Discussion The results of study 1 support the hypothesis that an individual’s participation in interpersonal synchrony leads to a more positive evaluation of an inanimate object involved in the synchrony experience. These results provide evidence that the general positive attitude in interpersonal synchrony extends beyond co-performers and is projected to other objects involved in the synchrony experience. In addition, we ruled out alternative explanations of physical exhaustion, psychological exhaustion, task difficulty, and mood. In the next study, we examine whether the main effect remains significant in a synchrony experience between an individual and an external inanimate referent. 3.2. Study 2 We found a positive effect of the interpersonal synchrony experience on an inanimate object in study 1. In study 2, we hoped to replicate the main effect with a different synchrony experience manipulation, an individual synchronizing with an external inanimate referent, thus ruling out the alternative explanation of the influence of human relationships. 3.2.1. Method A total of 163 students (105 females, mean age 18.87) participated in the study in exchange for academic credit. They were randomly assigned to conditions in a one-factor (synchronous vs. asynchronous vs. 1 We adopted the following two different measures to identify the unqualified cases: a student confederate’s observation and the participants’ self-reported manipulation check. Based on the student confederate’s observations, no participants were classified as unqualified participants; thus, no participant was excluded from the data analysis. Although there was a difference between the student confederate’s classifications and the participants’ self-reported manipulation check, we found no differences in the results regardless of whether we included the unqualified cases based on the participants’ self-reported manipulation check.

3.1.2. Results Manipulation check. The results of the manipulation check indicated that movement synchrony was successfully manipulated. No participants were classified as unqualified by a student peer.1 Perceived 251

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160) = 0.25, p = .78), psychological exhaustion (Msynchrony = 2.57, SD = 1.24, Masynchrony = 2.65, SD = 1.42, Mcontrol = 2.41, SD = 0.94; F (2,160) = 0.58, p = .56), mood (Msynchrony_happy = 4.78, SD = 1.09, Masynchrony_happy = 4.93, SD = 1.30, Mcontrol_happy = 4.87, SD = 1.35; F (2, 160) = 0.20, p = .82; Msynchrony_nervous = 2.57, SD = 1.04, Masynchrony_nervous = 2.49, SD = 1.26, Mcontrol_nervous = 2.44, SD = 1.33; F(2, 160) = 0.16, p = .85), and task difficulty (Msynchrony = 1.98, SD = 0.96, Masynchrony = 2.27, SD = 1.13, Mcontrol = 2.22, SD = 1.09; F (2, 160) = 1.16, p = .32).

control) between-subjects design. The task was to evaluate the wearability of a pair of new shoes. Twenty pairs of new shoes with identical appearance were provided to the participants. No visible logos were found inside or outside the shoes. The participants selected shoes of the correct size and wore them for five minutes to become accustomed to the shoes. Metronome tempos at different bpm (beats per minute) were used in the synchronous and asynchronous conditions. We pretested different tempos by comparing them with an average person’s stride frequency at normal walking speed. We found that a person walking at normal speed could easily adjust his/her stride frequency and synchronize with 105 bpm. However, we found that participants at a normal walking stride had more difficulty synchronizing with a slower (70 bpm) or faster (150 bpm) tempo. A pretest showed that no difference was found in the report of metronome tempo preference (M105 bpm = 4.93, SD = 1.31, M70 bpm = 4.71, SD = 1.07, M150 bpm = 4.84, SD = 0.85; F(2, 89) = 0.30, p = .74), pleasure (M105 bpm = 4.26, SD = 0.78, M70 bpm = 4.32, SD = 0.44, M150 bpm = 4.13, SD = 0.61; F (2, 89) = 0.72, p = .49), arousal (M105 bpm = 4.37, SD = 0.78, M70 bpm = 4.23, SD = 0.62, M150 bpm = 4.31, SD = 0.69; F(2, 89) = 0.32, p = .72) and familiarity (M105 bpm = 3.60, SD = 1.52, M70 bpm = 3.22, SD = 1.58, M150 bpm = 3.57, SD = 1.89; F(2, 89) = 0.50, p = .61). In the exercise task, the participants were instructed to match their stride frequency with the 105 bpm tempo and to walk for three minutes on a marked path in the synchronous condition. In the asynchronous condition, the participants were asked to walk at their normal speed and to not attempt to adjust their stride frequency to match the 70 bpm or 150 bpm background tempo. The participants were randomly assigned to either the slower or faster tempo groups. Finally, in the control condition, the participants walked without hearing any background tempo. After the exercise task, the participants completed a questionnaire including the critical measure of the extent to which they liked the shoes (using four items identical to those in study 1; α = 0.92), physical exhaustion, psychological exhaustion, mood, and task difficulty. A student peer observed each participant and recorded the participant as unqualified if he/she moved asynchronously with the tempo in the synchronous condition and if he/she moved synchronously with the tempo in the asynchronous condition. The unqualified cases based on the student confederate’s observation were not used in the data analysis.

3.2.3. Discussion The results of study 2 provided evidence that the synchrony experience in which a person aligns his/her movement to an external inanimate referent (e.g., metronome, music beat) leads to a more positive evaluation of an inanimate object involved in the synchrony experience. In this study, the synchrony experience occurred between an individual and an inanimate referent rather than between two individuals. Thus, to some extent, we ruled out the possibility that the positive evaluation of shoes was due to the affiliative and prosocial outcomes promoted by interpersonal synchrony. Again, alternative explanations of physical exhaustion, psychological exhaustion, task difficulty, and mood were ruled out. 3.3. Study 3 Study 3 served three purposes. First, we hoped to replicate the main effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation with a different synchrony experience manipulation involving multiple individuals. Study 1 tested the effect in a synchronous event involving only two individuals. However, the synchrony experience does not necessarily involve only two persons; many synchrony events involve a group of individuals, such as soldiers striding together or audience members clapping together. Second, we tested the mediating mechanism of harmony in this study. To support the mediating mechanism of harmony, we also tested the conceptual difference between harmony and the three core components of happiness: satisfaction in life, the presence of positive affect, and the absence of negative effect. Third, we tested the moderating effect of a synchrony-related vs. synchrony-unrelated product. We tested the boundary condition by asking the participants to perform the synchrony exercise with/without the target product (armband) and to indicate the extent to which they liked the target product (armband). We predicted that the positive effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation would disappear in the synchrony-unrelated product evaluation condition.

3.2.2. Results Manipulation check. The results of the manipulation check indicated that exercise synchrony was manipulated successfully. No participants were classified as unqualified by the student peer. The participants’ perceptions of synchrony were higher in the synchronous exercise condition (M = 5.28, SD = 1.18) than in the asynchronous exercise condition (M = 2.82, SD = 1.09; F(1, 107) = 128.73, p < .01, d = 2.00). No difference was found in the evaluation of shoes between the slower asynchronous group (M70 bpm = 4.26, SD = 0.98) and the faster asynchronous group (M150bpm = 4.22, SD = 1.22; F(1, 53) = 0.02, p = .91). Accordingly, the two groups were combined into a single asynchronous group for the subsequent analysis. The results of a oneway ANOVA with the average ratings of the shoes as the dependent variable revealed a significant main effect (F(2, 160) = 11.14, p < .01, d = 0.51). The planned contrasts revealed that the average product evaluation of the participants in the synchronous exercise condition (M = 5.15, SD = 0.99) was significantly greater than that in the asynchronous condition (M = 4.24, SD = 1.09; t(160) = 4.18, p < .01, d = 0.66) and significantly greater than that in the control condition (M = 4.28, SD = 1.31; t(160) = 3.99, p < .01, d = 0.63). In addition, product evaluations were not found to differ between the asynchronous and control conditions (t(160) = −0.17, p = .87). No significant difference between the three conditions was found for the average ratings of physical exhaustion (Msynchrony = 2.50, SD = 1.06, Masynchrony = 2.40, SD = 1.34, Mcontrol = 2.56, SD = 1.08; F(2,

3.3.1. Method Before explaining the procedure of the experiment, we first conducted a study to examine whether harmony is distinct from the core components of happiness: satisfaction with life, the presence of positive affect, and the absence of negative affect. Our premise is that if harmony is similar to happiness or positive affect, then evidence of discriminant validity among these constructs should be absent. The fiveitem scale of satisfaction with life was adopted from Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985). The twenty-item scale of positive and negative affect (PANAS) was adopted from Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988). Both scales have been widely used to measure happiness. The five-item harmony scale was adopted from Kjell et al. (2016). A 7-point Likert scale (1 strongly disagree, 7 strongly agree) was used. A total of 173 participants completed the questionnaire (106 females). According to the CFA results (see online appendix for details), the average variance extracted of each construct is greater than the highest shared variance among the constructs, indicating discriminant validity among the constructs of harmony, positive affect, and satisfaction with life in accordance with Fornell and Larcker (1981) criterion. A total of 211 students (138 females, mean age 19.12) were randomly assigned to conditions in a 2 (synchrony experience: synchrony 252

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vs. asynchrony) × 2 (product type: synchrony-related vs. synchronyunrelated) between-subjects design. The students participated in groups of five or six and were told that the task was to evaluate the wearability of an armband for a smartphone. We manipulated the product type (synchrony-related vs. synchrony-unrelated) by asking the participants to perform a warmup exercise of arm movement with/without the armband on their right arm. The participants in the synchrony-unrelated product conditions performed the warmup exercise without the armband on their arm. The armbands were put on a table, and the participants were told to try the armband on after the arm movement (synchrony exercise). The participants in the synchrony-related product conditions performed the warmup arm exercise with the armband on their right arm, and they were asked to take the armband off their right arm and put it on the table when they finished the arm exercise. They were asked to stand in a horizontal row and to look forward during the warmup arm exercise. In the synchronous condition, the participants were told to swing their arms in synchrony with other actors (i.e., to swing their arms in the same way and at the same pace as others) for 3 min. To facilitate their attainment of this objective, all of the participants were asked to start swinging their left arm first upon hearing the sound of a beep and to continue swinging back and forth. The participants were given three trial rounds to become familiar with the movements. In the asynchronous condition, the participants were instructed to perform the exercise normally and to look forward without observing others’ movements. A student peer observed the entire task and recorded whether synchrony/asynchrony was achieved. After completing the arm exercise, all participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they liked the armband (using four items identical to those in study 1; α = 0.93). Then, they indicated the extent to which they perceived a cognitive state of harmony (α = 0.91) with the full scale from Kjell et al. (2016). The scale captures individual subjective perceptions, including 5 items (“My lifestyle allows me to be in harmony”, “Most aspects of my life are in balance”, “I am in harmony”, “I accept the various condition of my life”, and “I fit in well with my surroundings”). They also responded to questions about the exercise task (task difficulty) and their state (overall mood, psychological exhaustion, and physical exhaustion). Finally, the participants reported the extent to which they felt that they had performed the exercise synchronously with the actors in the row as a manipulation check. All judgments were reported via Likert scales ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree).

Harmony. A similar 2 × 2 ANOVA revealed only the predicted main effect of the synchrony experience (F(1, 207) = 6.06, p = .02, d = 0.34). The average perceived harmony of the participants in the synchronous condition (M = 4.97, SD = 1.32) was significantly greater than that in the asynchronous condition (M = 4.55, SD = 1.16). There was no interaction (F(1, 207) = 0.02, p = .88). Moderated mediation. The effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation was driven by perceived harmony. Model 15 from Bolin (2014) revealed the predicted moderated mediation (index = 0.18, SE = 0.11, 95% CI [0.0280, 0.4785]), indicating that the mediating role of perceived harmony in driving the effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation is moderated by whether the product is related to the synchrony experience or not. When the product was related to the synchrony experience, perceived harmony mediated the effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation (direct effect = 0.64, SE = 0.25, 95% CI [0.1391, 1.1412]; indirect effect = 0.17, SE = 0.08, 95% CI [0.0421, 0.3814]). The synchrony experience induced more perceived harmony, and this increased harmony boosted the evaluation of the synchrony-related product. When the product was unrelated to the synchrony experience, however, the effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation disappeared (direct effect = 0.07, SE = 0.26, 95% CI [−0.4518, 0.5981]; indirect effect = −0.01, SE = 0.06, 95% CI [−0.1498, 0.1006]). The synchrony experience still induced more perceived harmony, but this increased harmony did not boost the evaluation of the synchrony-unrelated product. Replicating the results of studies 1–2, we found that there were no significant effects on the reports of other measurements.

3.3.2. Results Manipulation check. A 2 (synchrony experience: synchrony vs. asynchrony) × 2 (product type: synchrony-related vs. synchrony-unrelated) ANOVA revealed only a main effect of the synchrony experience. The participants felt significantly more synchrony in the synchronous condition (M = 5.04, SD = 1.55) than in the asynchronous condition (M = 3.62, SD = 1.44, F(1, 207) = 46.89, p < .01, d = 0.94), suggesting that the synchrony manipulation was successful. Neither the main effect of product type (F(1, 207) = 0.22, p = .64) nor the interaction between synchrony and product type was significant (F (1, 207) = 0.08, p = .78). Product evaluation. In addition to an effect of the synchrony experience (F(1, 207) = 5.28, p = .02, d = 0.32), a 2 (synchrony experience: synchrony vs. asynchrony) × 2 (product type: synchrony-related vs. synchrony-unrelated) ANOVA revealed the predicted interaction (F(1, 207) = 3.89, p = .05, d = 0.27). Consistent with our prediction, when the product was related to the synchrony experience, the synchrony experience increased the participants’ product evaluation (Msynchrony = 4.86, SD = 1.23 vs. Masynchrony = 4.06, SD = 1.27; F (1, 207) = 9.52, p < .01, d = 0.43). The relationship between the synchrony experience and product evaluation disappeared, however, when the product was unrelated to the synchrony experience (Msynchrony = 4.45, SD = 1.54 vs. Masynchrony = 4.39, SD = 1.39; F(1, 207) = 0.05, p = .82).

3.4. Study 4

3.3.3. Discussion These results provide support for the hypothesis that an individual’s synchrony experience can lead to more positive evaluations of an object directly involved in the synchrony experience. However, this positive effect does not occur for an object that is not related to the synchrony experience. Taken together, studies 1, 2 and 3 demonstrate that the positive effect of the synchrony experience can be extended to inanimate objects involved in the synchrony experience regardless of whether synchrony is experienced with another person, with a group of persons, or with an inanimate referent. The results also provide support that harmony mediates the effect of synchrony experiences on product evaluations.

Study 4 served two purposes. First, we aimed to replicate the main effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation with a different synchrony experience manipulation involving observing but not participating in synchrony and replicate the mediating effect of harmony. Second, we used a non-student sample in this study to confirm the robustness of our results in a general population. 3.4.1. Method A total of 120 non-student individuals (57 females, mean age 31.23) were recruited by a professional online panel provider; 72.5% of the participants had more than 3 years of work experience. The participants were randomly assigned to conditions of a one-factor (synchronous vs. asynchronous) between-subjects design. The task was to watch a video clip of a fashion show and then to evaluate the fashion collection shown in the video. A real fashion show video was edited, and a two-minute version of the fashion show was created. No recognizable brand names or logos appeared in the video. We separated segments in which only one model appeared on the runway, and the model’s leg and feet movements were clearly visible. A total of 20 pieces of a collection were shown by six female models in the video. The original soundtrack of the video was removed, and new background music with an obvious tempo beat was integrated into the video clip. The tempo of the music was 253

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addition, the mediating effect of harmony is further supported.

edited to create the different conditions in the experiment. In the synchronous condition, the models’ strides synchronized with the tempo beat of the background music. In the asynchronous conditions, the rhythm of the music was adjusted to ensure that the models’ strides did not synchronize with the music tempo. The participants were randomly assigned to watch either the faster or slower version of the video. A pretest showed that no difference was found in the reports of music preference (Msynchrony = 4.44, SD = 0.53, Mslower = 4.33, SD = 0.65, Mfaster = 4.27, SD = 0.71; F(2, 91) = 0.63, p = .54), pleasure (Msynchrony = 4.88, SD = 0.71, Mslower = 4.96, SD = 0.66, Mfaster = 4.92, SD = 0.68; F(2, 91) = 0.11, p = .89), arousal (Msynchrony = 4.10, SD = 0.77, Mslower = 3.91, SD = 0.73, Mfaster = 4.11, SD = 0.97; F(2, 91) = 0.62, p = .54) and familiarity (Msynchrony = 3.55, SD = 1.41, Mslower = 3.19, SD = 1.69, Mfaster = 3.72, SD = 1.82; F(2, 91) = 0.86, p = .42). After the exercise task, the participants completed the same questionnaire used in study 3.

3.5. Study 5 In study 5, we aimed to replicate the main effect and further confirm the mediating mechanism of harmony using a moderation-of-process approach in which the mediator is directly manipulated (see also, Jia, Huang, Wyer, & Shen, 2017; Rai & Lin, 2019; Spencer, Zanna, & Fong, 2005). The basic logic of this approach is that the positive effect through which exposure to the synchrony experience triggers the cognitive state of harmony has a spillover effect that engenders congruent (positive) evaluations of the synchrony-related product. Thus, once the cognitive state of harmony is disturbed, the positive effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation decreases. In other words, if the synchrony experience enhances product evaluation because the synchrony experience activates the cognitive state of harmony, then disrupting the cognitive state of harmony will decrease the accessibility of harmony-related information and knowledge in one’s memory; thus, an individual is less likely to use the information and knowledge as inputs for evaluating the target product. In this study, we manipulated harmony directly by inducing relationship compatibility in an interpersonal relationship. We expected that the main effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation would be attenuated when the participants were primed with low interpersonal relationship compatibility.

3.4.2. Results Manipulation check. Synchrony was manipulated successfully in the videos. Analyses of the participants’ perceived synchrony indicated that the participants perceived a higher degree of synchrony in the synchronous fashion show condition (M = 5.78, SD = 1.03) than in the asynchronous fashion show condition (M = 5.30, SD = 1.28; F(1, 118) = 5.21, p = .02, d = 0.42). No difference was found in the evaluation of the fashion collection between the slower asynchronous group (M = 5.34, SD = 1.09) and the faster asynchronous group (M = 5.62, SD = 0.64; F(1, 58) = 1.43, p = .24). Accordingly, the two groups were combined into a single asynchronous group for the subsequent analysis. The results of a oneway ANOVA with the average ratings of the fashion collection as the dependent variable (α = 0.79) revealed that the average product evaluation of the participants in the synchronous condition (M = 5.88, SD = 0.74) was significantly greater than in the asynchronous condition (M = 5.48, SD = 0.89; F(1, 118) = 7.17, p < .01, d = 0.49). Supporting our theorizing, the average perceived harmony (α = 0.77) of the participants in the synchronous condition (M = 5.48, SD = 0.82) was significantly greater than that in the asynchronous condition (M = 5.07, SD = 0.93; F(1, 118) = 6.48, p = .01, d = 0.47). A regression analysis of the product evaluation as a function of the synchrony experience (synchrony vs. asynchrony) showed that the synchrony experience positively influenced the participants' product evaluation (B = 0.24, t(118) = 2.68, p < .01). A similar analysis of perceived harmony showed that the synchrony experience also had a positive effect on perceived harmony (B = 0.23, t(118) = 2.55, p = .01). When both synchrony and perceived harmony were included in the model, the direct path from synchrony to product evaluation was significant (B = 0.20, t(117) = 2.17, p = .03), and the effect of perceived harmony was significant (B = 0.19, t(117) = 2.08, p = .04). The indirect effect of the synchrony experience through perceived harmony was further supported by a mediation analysis using the process macro (Model 4, Bolin, 2014). Bootstrapping results involving generating 5000 resamples suggested that the indirect effect was significant with a 95% CI excluding zero (0.0087–0.1864). Thus, as hypothesized, the effect of synchrony on product evaluation was mediated by perceived harmony. No significant differences between the three conditions were found in the reports of other measurements.

3.5.1. Method A total of 161 students (97 females, mean age 18.19) were randomly assigned to conditions of a 2 (synchrony experience: synchrony vs. asynchrony) × 2 (relationship compatibility: low relationship compatibility vs. control) between-subjects design. Students participated in groups of five or six. They were told that the task was to evaluate the wearability of an armband for a smartphone during exercise. They were asked to wear the armband on their right arm during the entire study. We predicted that the positive effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation would disappear in the condition in which interpersonal relationships were manipulated as low relationship compatibility. In the low relationship compatibility condition, the participants were told that the current study consisted of two unrelated tasks. The first task was identical to the synchrony-related task in study 3, except that the participants did not complete the questionnaire until they finished the second task of the study. The purpose of the first task was to manipulate the synchrony experience. After completing the first task, the participants were asked to specify the target’s name, gender, and relation for each of the five most incompatible two-person relationships in their lives. They were then asked to rate the degree of harmony characterizing each relationship on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very low) to 7 (very high). The procedure for manipulating low relationship compatibility was adopted from the Interpersonal Relationship Harmony Inventory (IRHI) developed by Kwan, Bond, and Singelis (1997). In the control condition, the participants only needed to complete the first task. After completing the required tasks, all participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they liked the armband. They also responded to questions about the exercise task (task difficulty) and their state (overall mood, psychological exhaustion, and physical exhaustion). Finally, the participants reported the extent to which they felt that they had performed the exercise synchronously with the actors in the row as a manipulation check. The measures used were identical to those in study 3.

3.4.3. Discussion These results provide support for the hypothesis that an individual who experiences synchrony by observing a synchronous performance will evaluate inanimate objects involved in the synchrony more positively. This study, in addition to the first three studies, demonstrates that the synchrony experience has a positive effect on inanimate objects involved in the experience regardless of whether the synchrony is experienced by participating in or observing a synchronous event. In

3.5.2. Results Manipulation check. The synchrony experience was manipulated successfully. The participants perceived a higher degree of synchrony in the synchronous condition (M = 5.25, SD = 1.21) than in the asynchronous condition (M = 3.43, SD = 1.20), F(1, 157) = 91.44, p < .01, d = 1.51), and this difference remained in both the low 254

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theories of embodied cognition, this study is the first to propose and test the mediating mechanism of harmony in the synchrony-product evaluation relationship. (3) This study conceptually proposes and empirically tests a boundary condition for the positive impact of the synchrony experience: product involvement in the synchrony experience. We found that the positive effect of synchrony on product evaluation is present only when the product is directly related in the synchrony experience. When the product is not related to an individual’s synchrony experience, the individual will not give a positive evaluation of the product. This is due to the mechanism of source-monitoring of the judges. The boundary condition deepens our understanding of the phenomenon of synchrony and its influence. To date, no study has examined the boundary condition of the positive influence of the synchrony experience. Second, this research provides a valuable addition to the existing embodied cognition literature. Embodied cognition theories suggest that our bodily sensations help to determine the judgments and decisions we make without conscious awareness, and our cognitive representations and processes are grounded in our concrete physical experience (Krishna & Schwarz, 2014). Past research has focused on how physical experience resulting from one of the five senses in the shopping context affects consumers’ subsequent preference judgments and decisions. For instance, research has found that physical experiences resulting from the sense of touch (Ackerman, Nocera, & Bargh, 2010; Zwebner et al., 2014), the sense of sight (Chiou & Cheng, 2013), and the sense of taste (Ding, Ji, & Chen, 2016) influence individuals’ social judgments and decisions. However, little research has examined the actual impact of physical experience resulting from multiple senses on consumer preferences and decision making. The five human senses are constantly and simultaneously receiving stimuli from an external environment, and most physical experiences are the results of multisensory integration. For instance, participating in or observing synchrony could involve more than one sense. Participants in group synchronous dancing must watch their dancing partners, listen to the music tempo, and move their body parts simultaneously to align their movement with others in real time. Thus, it is meaningful to expand the research on embodied cognition to physical experiences of multisensory integration. This research is the first to investigate the synchrony experience as a multisensory integration process from the perspective of embodied cognition. We discovered and proved the connections among bodily synchrony experiences, the cognitive state of harmony, and positive product evaluation. Third, this research makes valuable managerial contributions to marketing practices. The observed positive effect of participating in and observing synchrony on the evaluation of products involved in synchronous performance has broad applications in sensory marketing, branding, and advertising. The synchrony experience is a bodily experience resulting from multisensory stimuli. Thus, marketing managers should identify and create potential sight or sound stimuli in the process of communicating and interacting with customers to trigger consumers’ synchrony experiences. For instance, it is a typical behavior for a potential shoe buyer to try on a pair of shoes and walk around in the store in the shoes to evaluate their wearability. Based on our findings, it will be useful to use music with a tempo that falls in a certain range (e.g., 105 bpm) so that consumers will be more likely to synchronize their steps with the tempo when they try on a product. Similarly, the background music in a fashion show should be carefully selected so that the strides of the models can match the tempo of the music. Such a match will improve buyers’/viewers’ preference for the product/fashion collection of interest. Providers of experience-based services such as theme parks and fitness clubs may also utilize the synchrony experience to influence customer preference for the services. For example, a theme park may create collective activities that allow visitors to sing and dance together so that the visitors have more opportunities to experience synchronous movements. Similarly, fitness clubs should offer more guided group

relationship compatibility condition (5.00 vs. 3.66, F(1, 157) = 24.17, p < .01, d = 0.77) and in the control relationship compatibility condition (5.47 vs. 3.21, F(1, 157) = 76.02, p < .01, d = 1.37). The result of the relationship compatibility manipulation check indicated that low relationship compatibility was successfully manipulated. Perceived harmony was found to be lower than 4 (Mlow relationship harmony = 2.22, SD = 0.51; t(75) = −30.38, p < .01). Analyses of the average product evaluation as a function of synchrony and relationship compatibility revealed a significant main effect of synchrony (F(1, 157) = 4.16, p = .04, d = 0.32) that was qualified by an interaction of synchrony and relationship compatibility (F(1, 157) = 5.75, p = .02, d = 0.38). In the control relationship compatibility condition, the participants’ average product evaluation in the synchronous condition (M = 5.10, SD = 0.43) was significantly greater than that in the asynchronous condition (M = 4.69, SD = 0.58; F(1, 157) = 10.43, p < .01, d = 0.51). In the low relationship compatibility condition, this difference was not evident (Msynchrony = 4.70, SD = 0.69 vs. Masynchrony = 4.74, SD = 0.62, respectively; F(1, 157) = 0.06, p = .81). Replicating the results of previous studies, we found that there were no significant effects on the reports of other measurements. 3.5.3. Discussion Study 5 provides further evidence supporting the underlying mediating mechanism of harmony. Using a moderation-of-process design, we manipulated harmony directly. In the control relationship compatibility condition, a positive effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation was replicated successfully. In the low relationship compatibility condition, the positive effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation disappeared. The findings suggest that when the cognitive state of harmony was disrupted, the priming effect of harmony disappeared, and the positive evaluation of the target product was not manifested. 4. Discussion Drawing from theories of sensory marketing and embodied cognition, this study examined and explained the positive effect of synchrony experiences on inanimate objects directly involved in the synchrony experience. We manipulated the synchrony experience by taking different approaches and found that the positive effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation remained regardless of how the synchrony experience was triggered. We also found that the physical experience of synchrony activates a cognitive state of harmony that leads to a more favorable evaluation of inanimate objects involved in the synchrony experience. Finally, we found a boundary condition: The positive effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation and the mediating mechanism of harmony work only when the product is directly related to the synchrony experience. When the product is not related to the synchrony experience, the positive effect disappears. This research makes three important contributions. First, this research extends the current literature on synchrony in four important ways. (1) The existing synchrony research mostly predicts a positive effect of synchrony on synchronous partners (e.g., Cacioppo et al., 2014; Hove & Risen, 2009), with one exception (Dong, Dai, & Wyer, 2015). It is less clear whether the positive effect of synchrony experiences can be generalized beyond synchronous partners and can include inanimate objects that are involved in the synchrony experience. This study confirms that the synchrony experience positively affects the evaluation of inanimate objects. (2) This study provides a theoretical account of why a synchrony experience positively affects the evaluation of an inanimate object. The current literature on synchrony is still in the early stage of development and has established the main effect of synchrony on synchronous partners (e.g., Lakens, 2010), but no study to date has provided a convincing theoretical account and rigorous empirical test of the mechanism behind this effect. Drawing from 255

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Appendix A. Supplementary material

classes that facilitate members’ synchrony experience. In TV advertisements, more synchronous elements (e.g., actors’ movements in sync with the music, actors in sync with each other) should be embedded in the presentation or display of products. Watching TV commercials with more synchronous elements may leave viewers with a more positive impression of the featured products. Possible limitations of this research should be noted. First, all five experiments used the same measurements to gauge the dependent variable: the extent to which individuals liked the target product. This was desirable to ensure that the general positive effect in this research was due to the differences in our manipulations rather than to differences in the dependent variable. To ensure external validity, this variable can be measured in a more extensive and diversified way. Second, as our understanding of the phenomenon of the synchrony experience and its potential impact advances, more attention should be given to investigating the antecedents of the synchrony experience. For instance, a synchrony experience can be achieved in one of the three situations, participating in interpersonal synchrony, synchronizing with an inanimate object, and observing synchrony. It would be meaningful to examine whether the synchrony experiences achieved in the three different conditions differ in any way. Similarly, it would be interesting to examine whether there are any specific features of the inanimate synchrony referent that can heighten or attenuate the synchrony experience. Third, it is unclear whether a general positive effect of the synchrony experience on product evaluation exists in all conditions. In this study, we examined one boundary condition, product involvement in the synchrony experience, and found that the positive effect of synchrony on product evaluation was dependent on whether the product is directly related to the synchrony experience. There are many other meaningful boundary conditions that warrant future investigation. For instance, what is the difference when participants perform a simple synchrony task versus when they perform a difficult synchrony task? In the present study, all of the synchrony tasks were very simple, and the participants could perform the tasks easily. However, there are synchronies that require much more effort to achieve (e.g., synchronizing a highly complicated dance routine). It is unclear whether a more difficult synchrony task would enhance the synchrony-harmony relationship and the positive effect of the synchrony experience on subsequent judgments. Another venue for future research is the difference between voluntary synchrony and forced synchrony. How would the effect change in these two different synchrony experiences? Finally, recent findings suggest that a tempo-arousal effect occurs when music is motivational (Karageorghis et al., 2009). In the current paper, we did not use motivational music in our studies to avoid any cofounding effect. However, given the fact that music is widely used in creating synchrony experiences, it would be useful to examine the interaction of music arousal and synchrony and their potential impact on subsequent product evaluation.

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Data availability Data will be made available on request.

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments This research was funded by a grant from the Chinese National Science Foundation (no. 71572168) awarded to Professor Jun Ye. The authors would like to express their appreciation to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Rui Chen and Dr. Yanli Jia for their valuable feedback. 256

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Xiaoyin Ye is a Ph.D candidate in the Management School of Xiamen University. Her research interests cover sensory marketing and consumer decision making. E-mail: [email protected] Zhaoyang Guo, Ph.D. in economics, is a professor in the Management School of Xiamen University. His research areas include strategic marketing and internet marketing. His representative paper titled “Institutions and opportunism in buyer-supplier exchanges” was published in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (Issue 6, 2018). E-mail: [email protected] Jun Ye, Ph.D. in management, is a professor in the Management School of Xiamen University. His research areas include consumer value co-creation, sustainable development and the application of Chinese traditional teachings in marketing. His representative paper titled “The long-term impact of service empathy and responsiveness on customer satisfaction and profitability: A longitudinal investigation in a health care context” was published in Marketing Letters (Issue 1, 2017). E-mail: [email protected]

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