Two hearts beat as one: Pulse rates of two people listening to the same story at the same time synchronize - even if they are alone
Researchers have discovered that when two people are listening to the same story -- whether it be the reading of a book or watching a Netflix series -- their hearts beat to the same rhythm. The discovery comes from a September paper in Cell Report called 'Conscious processing of narrative stimuli synchronizes heart rate between individuals.' It claims that even if you're not in the same room with someone, if you're hearing the same story at the same time as another person, your hearts beat in sync. Lucas Parra, a professor of biomedical engineering at City College of New York and a senior author of the study, said that people's hearts connect through similar stories. 'The fluctuations of our heart rates are not random,' said Parra. 'It's the story that drives the heart. There's an explicit link between people's heart rates and a narrative.' Researcher Lucas Parra and his team have discovered that when two people are listening to the s...