Blurring of self-other boundaries is associated with awe and social bonding in an art ritual performance

Self‑transcendence in rituals and awe experiences tends to promote social bonding, particularly if these events involve synchronous movement. However, the exact underlying mechanisms remain unclear. A promising candidate is the blurring of self-other boundaries –a definitional component of self-transcendence–, which may increase perceived self-other overlap, in turn leading to greater social connection. Building on the body ownership illusion literature in which self-boundaries are routinely manipulated, a choreographed art‑ritual performance study was developed to examine whether synchronous movement and touch could change bodily self-other boundaries, and whether this would affect social bonding between dyads of strangers. One hundred and nineteen previously unacquainted participants took part in a performance with two dancers, who moved either in synchrony (main condition) or in canon (control condition) behind and next to the dyads of participants. Participants showed significant increases in social bonding across conditions, but the blurring of bodily self-other boundaries was stronger in the synchronous than in the in-canon condition. Increases in social bonding were most strongly predicted by self-other boundary blurring via increased perceived self-other overlap, whereas awe made only a modest additional contribution and did not emerge as a strong unique predictor of bonding once self-other boundary blurring was taken into account, even if self-other boundary blurring itself was strongly associated with experiencing awe. These findings suggest that art‑ritual performances can induce social bonding between strangers, and that embodied blurring of self-other boundaries leading to increased perceived self-other overlap may be a key proximal mechanism linking self‑transcendent experience to social connection.