Dance Moves Might Lower Alexithymia

Scientists wanted to know if dancing together could change how people understand their feelings. They looked at a traditional group dance called Guozhuang. The idea was that moving together might influence inner awareness.

Five hundred sixty healthy adults took part in the research. They each filled out a set of standardized scales. The scales assessed how much they moved, how well they understood others, how connected they felt, and how difficult it was to identify their own emotions. Researchers used the PROCESS macro for SPSS to test the relationships.

Analysis revealed that people who danced more often had lower alexithymia scores. The correlation was -0.295, indicating a significant inverse relationship. Two mediation routes emerged. One route passed only through social connectedness, contributing -0.082 and making up about 67% of the indirect effect. The other route went first through cognitive empathy and then through social connectedness, adding -0.040 and accounting for roughly 33% of the indirect effect.

The study implies that dancing together could lower alexithymia. The strongest effect comes from feeling more connected to others. Cognitive empathy contributes as well, but it does so by strengthening that connection.