It's Always Better When We're Together: Physiological Synchrony and Shared Experiences in Social VR

It's Always Better When We're Together: Physiological Synchrony and Shared Experiences in Social VR | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article It's Always Better When We're Together: Physiological Synchrony and Shared Experiences in Social VR Agnes Mercedes Kloft, Julian Marcel Fabinc, Linda Hirsch, Adas Slezas, and 5 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7134151/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract When people share experiences in physically co-located environments, such as attending a music experience, their physiological responses align, reflecting a shared social experience through synchrony. In virtual reality (VR), however, it remains unclear whether physiological synchrony similarly reflects the quality of social experiences. Our study examines how different sensory attendance modalities affect physiological synchrony and perceived shared experience during social VR music experiences. In a within-subject design, participants (N = 66) watched 16 music video clips in dyads, in four attendance modalities: Alone, Voice, Avatar, and Avatar+Voice. We measured physiological responses (electrodermal activity, heart rate, and respiration rate) and subjective measures of presence, social presence, co-presence, social connectedness, user experience, and emotional response. Attending the experience with access to social cues, particularly in the Avatar+Voice condition, significantly strengthened physiological synchrony, presence dimensions, social connectedness and user experiences compared to the Alone condition, where no social indicators were available. Avatars had an overall greater impact than Voice in intensifying shared experiences, indicating that virtual bodies amplify co-experiences both subjectively and physiologically. We demonstrate that physiological synchrony can serve as a measure of co-experience in social VR music settings. Our findings show its potential for evaluating and designing embodied interaction in extended reality (XR), contributing to the optimization of presence dimensions, social connectedness and user experience. We inform XR researchers and practitioners about the role of avatars and voices in shaping shared VR experiences and discuss how synchrony-based measures can support future research and design efforts to understand co-experiences in social XR. Virtual Reality Social Virtual Reality User Experience Shared Experience Physiological Synchrony Quantitative Methods Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7134151","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":487840488,"identity":"340a694c-8286-451f-a89a-8b3f7e0fc2c5","order_by":0,"name":"Agnes Mercedes Kloft","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA6ElEQVRIie2PsWoCQRCG/2NgbTZMO8cZ8worB8bChxEOrGzSXRFC4MBKtM5D5B0uzVUHtmul9hJiIyeEkNsikGq90mK/bob/Y/4BAoHbZdoHldEeGLdDtC+7KBoqIwOIAGQ6K0r+FG+W1+8fhwYzzYqrvHmWFwZF3itiP7NUY67jBantshKJXwn+YrYeJUCuza5QVisRU3LpVR5s/XhpnFKRevr+ccqVK2azHMEVcwrdLTooQ6vTRJuZ+yVN7lcSvxVXlMGmHp6aPBuwig6n43nC3Cvoy6dApq7e/w158y3sLREIBAKBll/PNUAudCyb3QAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Aalto University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Agnes","middleName":"Mercedes","lastName":"Kloft","suffix":""},{"id":487840489,"identity":"aeb5c7b3-9944-474d-9eda-e507891a627e","order_by":1,"name":"Julian Marcel Fabinc","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Aalto University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Julian","middleName":"Marcel","lastName":"Fabinc","suffix":""},{"id":487840490,"identity":"b252fc1b-b4c3-4e62-bcea-4a02ebecf8aa","order_by":2,"name":"Linda Hirsch","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of California, Santa Cruz","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Linda","middleName":"","lastName":"Hirsch","suffix":""},{"id":487840491,"identity":"00b34cea-334e-4879-87d6-d3f09278d3e6","order_by":3,"name":"Adas Slezas","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Aalto University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Adas","middleName":"","lastName":"Slezas","suffix":""},{"id":487840492,"identity":"8cc45ac9-73d3-4962-beda-5023001d13be","order_by":4,"name":"Hendrik Hachmann","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Leibniz University Hannover","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hendrik","middleName":"","lastName":"Hachmann","suffix":""},{"id":487840493,"identity":"df518fe1-a959-4352-be41-bd30f3d52ab6","order_by":5,"name":"Martin Cunneen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Limerick","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Martin","middleName":"","lastName":"Cunneen","suffix":""},{"id":487840494,"identity":"6d22e671-4ca8-4327-b929-2702b4be0046","order_by":6,"name":"Sami Sebastian Brandt","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"IT University of Copenhagen","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sami","middleName":"Sebastian","lastName":"Brandt","suffix":""},{"id":487840495,"identity":"447dbb07-f3aa-4916-939a-ae330aa0575d","order_by":7,"name":"Mikko Sams","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Aalto University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mikko","middleName":"","lastName":"Sams","suffix":""},{"id":487840496,"identity":"234a21fe-6a1a-443e-8873-e18188eff468","order_by":8,"name":"Robin Welsch","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Aalto University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Robin","middleName":"","lastName":"Welsch","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-07-15 21:53:13","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7134151/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7134151/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":93363499,"identity":"7a69790a-cdcc-4db6-ae6b-6141703d7b09","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-13 04:00:59","extension":"json","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":11297,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"3816f01a05ec475b8f5e3deb9ba8cb45.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7134151/v1/bcf5d00ec3086255435cc2e3.json"},{"id":93364076,"identity":"585ae812-0263-4ea6-860c-0aa9c79accb5","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-13 04:09:06","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":3002914,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"VR25BetterTogether.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7134151/v1_covered_51c33724-5044-4f22-9ac2-84bb906f3d8d.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"It's Always Better When We're Together: Physiological Synchrony and Shared Experiences in Social VR","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Virtual Reality, Social Virtual Reality, User Experience, Shared Experience, Physiological Synchrony, Quantitative Methods","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7134151/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7134151/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"When people share experiences in physically co-located environments, such as attending a music experience, their physiological responses align, reflecting a shared social experience through synchrony. In virtual reality (VR), however, it remains unclear whether physiological synchrony similarly reflects the quality of social experiences. Our study examines how different sensory attendance modalities affect physiological synchrony and perceived shared experience during social VR music experiences. In a within-subject design, participants (N = 66) watched 16 music video clips in dyads, in four attendance modalities: Alone, Voice, Avatar, and Avatar+Voice. We measured physiological responses (electrodermal activity, heart rate, and respiration rate) and subjective measures of presence, social presence, co-presence, social connectedness, user experience, and emotional response. Attending the experience with access to social cues, particularly in the Avatar+Voice condition, significantly strengthened physiological synchrony, presence dimensions, social connectedness and user experiences compared to the Alone condition, where no social indicators were available. Avatars had an overall greater impact than Voice in intensifying shared experiences, indicating that virtual bodies amplify co-experiences both subjectively and physiologically. We demonstrate that physiological synchrony can serve as a measure of co-experience in social VR music settings. Our findings show its potential for evaluating and designing embodied interaction in extended reality (XR), contributing to the optimization of presence dimensions, social connectedness and user experience. We inform XR researchers and practitioners about the role of avatars and voices in shaping shared VR experiences and discuss how synchrony-based measures can support future research and design efforts to understand co-experiences in social XR.","manuscriptTitle":"It's Always Better When We're Together: Physiological Synchrony and Shared Experiences in Social VR","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-13 04:00:55","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7134151/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"90e270e3-97e1-45ee-a58d-2b8a150e1c27","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 13th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-27T09:54:56+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-13 04:00:55","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7134151","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7134151","identity":"rs-7134151","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}