A Unifying Principle Underlying Social Bonding: Towards a Psycho-Biological Theory

ongoing

Imagine a first date, where partners feel an immediate bond, versus an awkward date, where partners feel disconnected. BioBond asks whether there is a biological mechanism that is set to differentially favour bonding in the first date over the second. Despite substantial research on social bonding, we are still without an understanding of what drives social animals to bond and prefer selected individuals. BioBond aims to provide, for the first time, a novel and empirically-validated biological theory of sociality, tying fundamental physiological processes, like glucose metabolism, arousal or temperature, to social bonding, where physiological efficiency during interactions impacts bonding probability. This is not limited to romantic partners, but rather is suggested as a unifying principle that explains bonding: any social interaction that advances physiological gains reinforces bonding. Empirically validating such a unifying principle would demonstrate how complex behaviour emerges from a simple biological feature. Importantly, since physiological gains are quantitative, they can implement selective bonding, where interactions with higher physiological gains are more strongly reinforced. My approach is interdisciplinary, lying at the intersection of neuroscience, biology and psychology, with four mutually-informative lines of research: (1) Demonstrate how social interactions impact physiology by quantifying glucose metabolism, arousal and temperature during interactions v. alone in two major human bonds- parental and romantic; (2) Map the neurobiological pathway via which interactions impact physiology in real-time social interactions; (3) Demonstrate a causal effect of physiological gains on bonding by altering physiology during interactions; (4) Provide an evolutionary perspective by demonstrating it in an additional social species. BioBond is ground breaking in offering a novel, theory-based, testable biological mechanism for bonding across bonds and species.