Group Interpersonal Synchrony Increases Prosocial Behavior in Young Autistic Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Synchronized movement in group sessions can keep cooperation alive months later, yet it won’t ease job stress.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Dvir et al. (2025) split young autistic adults into two groups. One group did movement games where everyone moved in sync. The other group did the same games without syncing.
The team tracked prosocial behavior, social closeness, and work stress for 17 weeks.
What they found
The sync group kept higher cooperative behavior 17 weeks later. Right after the sessions they also felt closer to peers.
Work stress stayed the same for both groups.
How this fits with other research
Glass et al. (2023) show that autistic pairs usually move less in sync than mixed pairs. Tamar’s study adds that even modest boosts in sync can still lift later cooperation.
Chan et al. (2021) and Koh (2024) find physical-activity programs raise social skills in autistic kids. Tamar extends this benefit to young adults and shows the gain can last months.
Granieri et al. (2020) found autistic adults feel more rapport with autistic partners despite lower motor sync. This helps explain why Tamar’s sync games helped closeness but did not cut job stress: sync is only one path to connection.
Why it matters
If you run social groups for autistic adults, add five-minute synchronized movement warm-ups. Simple mirroring games or clap-along rhythms are enough. They may stretch cooperative behavior long after the group ends. Do not expect them to fix work stress; pair the sync games with direct job-support tools for that goal.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Dance movement therapists use interventions in which participants share synchronous movement to enhance well-being and increase social skills among autistic individuals. However, there is limited research about the effects of synchronized interventions on interpersonal and intrapersonal outcomes of autistic individuals. This field study evaluated the immediate and long-term impacts of a movement-based synchronized group intervention on prosocial behavior, social cohesion, and work-related stress among young autistic adults. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to investigate two movement-based group intervention conditions: synchronous and non-synchronous. Fifty-four young adults, aged 18-22, enrolled in an innovative program integrating young autistic adults into the Israeli army workforce. One-hour-long movement-based intervention sessions took place once a week for six to seven weeks, and data was collected at three time points: before and after the intervention period, and 17 weeks after it ended. Results suggest that the synchronized intervention may be more effective than the non-synchronized intervention in enhancing cooperative behavior after 17 weeks and fostering social closeness with familiar peers post-intervention. However, the synchronized intervention may not be more effective in reducing work-related stress. A holistic approach is discussed, which integrates synchronized and non-synchronized movement-based group interventions for young autistic individuals transitioning into work environments.Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov (ID: NCT05846308; URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05846308 ).
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01554