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How characteristics of work songs facilitate tempo-keeping in social interactions
Wolf, Thomas Sebanz, Natalie Knoblich, Günther
Wolf, Thomas
Sebanz, Natalie
Knoblich, Günther
Title / Series / Name
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Publication Volume
293
Publication Issue
2069
Pages
Editors
Keywords
cultural evolution
joint action
sensorimotor synchronization
temporal coordination
vocalization
work songs
General Medicine
General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Immunology and Microbiology
General Environmental Science
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
joint action
sensorimotor synchronization
temporal coordination
vocalization
work songs
General Medicine
General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Immunology and Microbiology
General Environmental Science
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Files
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14018/29013
Abstract
Across cultures, people have long sung while working together-yet potential functional benefits of singing work songs have rarely been investigated experimentally. Rhythmic joint actions such as rowing, hammering or clapping tend to accelerate over time, a phenomenon known as joint rushing, which can undermine coordinated joint performance. Here, we examine whether features typical of traditional work songs help prevent joint rushing. In three experiments, pairs of participants performed rhythmic tapping tasks under conditions that simulated key aspects of work songs: solo vocalizations and metric subdivisions. When one person vocalized a subdivided rhythm, joint rushing disappeared completely, timing variability was reduced and interpersonal coordination improved. These findings reveal how vocalizations can act as a real-time scaffold for joint performance, linking basic cognitive timing mechanisms to the evolution of collective human practices. Work songs, and perhaps other forms of shared vocalization, may thus represent culturally evolved tools that harness cognitive mechanisms to enhance coordination in collaborative tasks.
Topic
Publisher
Place of Publication
Type
Journal article
Date
2026-04-22
Language
ISBN
Identifiers
10.1098/rspb.2025.2944