The relational body: sharing body representations with significant others

Humans are fundamentally social animals. We form close relationships with others and characteristically live in small, close social groups of siblings, romantic partners, and our infants. Social psychologists have shown that the way in which we process social information from our family members and intimate partners is very different to that from strangers and acquaintances. For example, we show increased empathy when our intimate partners are in pain, mothers have enhanced detection of their own infant's cries, and we show enhanced altruism and trust for our siblings. Evolutionary psychologists argue that these distinct social behaviors serve important biological functions, such as long-term pair-bonding, child-rearing, and maintenance of kin-relationships. In evolutionary history, these processes were central to survival and reproduction. They argue that much of our social behavior in the present day still serves these functional relationships, often on an implicit level. Therefore, evolutionary psychology has provided an explanation of why these special social processes exist, appealing to their specific biological functions.
However, no-one has yet provided an explanation of how we are able to process social signals from our close family and partners in this special way. We suggest that a focus on the role of the body in social cognition may enable us to understand the neurocognitive basis of these evolutionarily important social processes. The way we represent our bodies and the bodies of others plays a central role in our understanding of social signals. Evidence suggests that when we observe the bodily experiences of others, such as touch, pain, emotion and movement, we 'share' these experiences. For example, when we see someone being touched, specific areas of our brains are activated in the same way as if we were touched ourselves. This sharing of others' bodily states, also known as 'bodily overlap', might underlie a number of important social processes, such as empathy, emotion recognition, and understanding others' intentions.
So far, experiments investigating this bodily overlap have only used unfamiliar others as social stimuli, and so our understanding of the role of the body in social processing is restricted to how we interact with strangers. This neglects significant others, such as family and partners. Can differences in the way we represent their bodies in relation to our own explain the enhanced empathy we have for a partner, the increased trustworthiness we see in a sibling's face, or the special ability of a mother to read her infant's emotions and needs? And if we change bodily overlap, can this affect the quality of our relationships with close others? This project will investigate the role of bodily overlap for social cognition in biologically important social relationships, focusing on relationships between siblings, mothers and infants, and partners. For each relationship, we will use a variety of experimental methods to assess bodily overlap and social processing. We will also experimentally increase bodily overlap between individuals, and see how it changes perceived relationship quality.
The results of our research may have a number of diverse applications. One area which our research might impact upon is that of health and well-being. The physical and mental health benefits of close relationships and the adverse effects of family breakdown are well documented. Our research will investigate the effects of increasing bodily overlap within these relationships to improve relationship quality, and this makes our research very relevant to relationship therapies and other family interventions. We also foresee a number of applications in other areas, including the work-place, whereby our research into close adult relationships could be extended to increase our understanding of the role of the body in creating and maintaining functional and productive relationships between work colleagues.

The key focus of our project is on close social relationships. The health benefits of these relationships and the adverse effects of family breakdown, both for individuals and society at large, are well documented in the medical literature. Breakdown of social relationships are a significant causal factor in the development of both mental and physical illness. By investigating the effects of experimentally increased interpersonal synchrony, our research has the potential to develop simple behavioral interventions to increase self-other bodily overlap. Results from our project will enable us to assess the ability of such interventions to enhance perceived relationship quality, as well as improve the way social signals from significant others are perceived, understood and responded to, potentially enhancing quality of life, health and well-being.
More specifically, our project may inform a number of user groups involved in relationship therapy and therapeutic interventions as well as Third Sector users, such as the Charity "Relate" whose mission is to develop and support healthy relationships. For example, marital counselling is a burgeoning area of the therapy sector, whose growth is in response to rapidly increasing divorce rates in the UK. Our research with long-term romantic partners will inform therapists of the effects of increasing interpersonal bodily overlap on social understanding and perceived relationship quality.
The mother-infant relationship is another potential area of impact, being highly relevant for family therapists and developmental clinicians. Early mother-infant interactions have important consequences for subsequent child development. Intervention therapies are particularly important for mothers with depression, and mothers of premature infants, both of which have reduced synchrony in face-to-face interactions with their infants, poorer interpretation of the infant's needs, and ultimately poorer developmental outcomes. Our research into the role of the body in these important face-to-face interactions will provide data which can inform therapists on the effectiveness of simple behavioral procedures to increase synchrony and responsiveness between a mother and her infant.
The focus on the mother-infant relationship could extend to impact the toy industry. Age appropriate toys for young infants may be designed to induce mother-infant synchrony, perhaps eliciting synchronous touch or action, for example. This may provide strong cues for the infant's developing intersubjectivity, but may also improve the way in which mothers synchronize with their infants during face-to-face interactions. Our research could provide new data emphasizing the importance of toys that support mutually-beneficial bodily interaction between mothers and infants.
Our focus on the mother-infant relationship may also inform the development of new assessments of infant attachment. Existing diagnostic measures of attachment take considerable time to administer and code, are expensive, and not suitable for infants below 12 months of age. Our research has the potential to identify simple, quick and cheap measures of bodily overlap between mother and infant which may reliably predict later attachment security.
Finally, the overall focus of the proposed project on family and close relationships may also be applicable to the workplace. Adults in full-time employment currently spend on average 40hr/week at work with colleagues. The importance of team cohesion, affiliation, and social interaction with colleagues is reflected in the growing number of companies and organisations investing in 'team-building' days as a means to improve productivity and employee well-being. Our research on the role of shared body representations in the development and maintenance of important social relationships may be extended to increase our understanding of how cooperation, interaction and affiliation in the work-place are influenced by embodied processes.