Influences of Different Types of Interpersonal Synchronization on the Cooperative Behavior of Chinese Children

Cooperation is an important influencing factor for individual morality and harmonious social development. Currently, most scholars select adult samples and adopt laboratory research methods. They have found that compared with asynchronous behavior, interpersonal synchronization (including both intentional and incidental synchronization) is significantly associated with higher levels of cooperative behavior. Does this conclusion apply to Chinese children? Childhood is a critical period for the development of cooperative abilities. Therefore, more effective educational approaches for fostering cooperation should be explored and adopted to promote children’s cooperative behaviors. This study randomly selected 193 students aged 8–11 (95 boys and 98 girls, M = 9.74, SD = 1.16) from 5 primary schools in a city. Based on a 2 (intentional synchronization, incidental synchronization) × 3 (measurement occasion) mixed design, a field experiment was conducted to explore the effects of different types of interpersonal synchronization on children’s cooperative behavior. However, the results showed that neither asynchronous behavior nor incidental synchronization significantly improved children’s cooperative behavior. However, the level of cooperative behavior under intentional synchronization conditions was significantly higher than that under incidental synchronization conditions. This characteristic may be related to China’s long-standing collectivistic education, which can help educators reflect on and optimize their cooperation education practices. This finding deserves attention from cooperation researchers.