Synchronized arousal between performers and related spectators in a fire-walking ritual

TLDR

Collective rituals are ubiquitous and debated for their function, with evidence that they enhance social cohesion and affect both performers and audiences. Arousal was quantified using heart‑rate dynamics and nonlinear recurrence analyses on data from 38 fire‑walkers and spectators to compare synchronized arousal. The study found that fire‑walkers and related spectators exhibit synchronized arousal during the ritual, whereas unrelated spectators do not, suggesting an informational mediation and providing a physiological basis for collective rituals.

Abstract

Collective rituals are present in all known societies, but their function is a matter of long-standing debates. Field observations suggest that they may enhance social cohesion and that their effects are not limited to those actively performing but affect the audience as well. Here we show physiological effects of synchronized arousal in a Spanish fire-walking ritual, between active participants and related spectators, but not participants and other members of the audience. We assessed arousal by heart rate dynamics and applied nonlinear mathematical analysis to heart rate data obtained from 38 participants. We compared synchronized arousal between fire-walkers and spectators. For this comparison, we used recurrence quantification analysis on individual data and cross-recurrence quantification analysis on pairs of participants' data. These methods identified fine-grained commonalities of arousal during the 30-min ritual between fire-walkers and related spectators but not unrelated spectators. This indicates that the mediating mechanism may be informational, because participants and related observers had very different bodily behavior. This study demonstrates that a collective ritual may evoke synchronized arousal over time between active participants and bystanders. It links field observations to a physiological basis and offers a unique approach for the quantification of social effects on human physiology during real-world interactions.