Understanding the Role of Autonomic Synchrony in the Swallowtail Catastrophe Model of Leadership Emergence

This study investigates the relationship between two phenomena that can emerge simultaneously in group interaction: autonomic synchrony and the emergence of leadership roles among team members. It was previously shown that the probability distributions of the two processes are both phase shifts characterized by the swallowtail catastrophe distribution. The objective of the present study was to examine the role of team autonomic synchrony as one of the three control parameters in the leadership emergence model. Research participants were 136 undergraduates who were organized into teams of three to five members playing the computer-game Counter-Strike while wearing GSR sensors. After approximately two hours of interaction, team members rated each other on leadership behaviors. Autonomic synchrony was analyzed as a driver-empath process that produces a group-level coefficient of synchrony (SE) from dyadic interactions from all possible dyadic interactions. The model was built in three stages: (a) replicate a model obtained from a similar team effort involving dynamic decisions, (b) test new variables as specific control parameters, and (c) test synchrony metrics for their best fit as one of the three control parameters. Results showed that both synchrony metrics were best understood as bifurcation variables that brought individuals who were already in the zone of potential leaders into primary or secondary roles. Prior gaming experience and SE Variability each played the role of a bias variable that distinguished between primary and secondary leaders. SE Variability also pre-empted team performance as a control variable.