Individual and shared goals can be achieved through social interpersonal interaction, cooperation and competition being two different yet similar strategies to reach such aims and objectives. Nevertheless, there is a gap in the literature analyzing the effect of these types of social interactions, especially in cooperation, on autonomic nervous system responses using noninvasive measures, such as heart rate (HR). The regulation of HR and other cardiovascular variables of the central nervous system offers information about how to encourage or discourage social engagement and prosocial behaviors. In fact, a more flexible engagement with the environment and efficient emotions regulation is enabled by an efficient cardiac control. Hence, the main aim of this study was to investigate heart rate variability (HRV) in strangers (180 healthy young participants) who were set to cooperate or compete in face-to-face dyads (between same-gender participants) or to work alone (as the control condition), considering outcomes in these tasks (positive or negative) and gender as moderating variables. We found that participants who cooperated had higher HRs and lower high frequency (HF) HRV than those who competed and/or worked alone. Regarding gender and outcome, men who cooperate and lose have lower HF-HRV levels than men on the simple task with negative outcomes. Hence, our study indicates that cooperation between strangers in face-to-face dyads may produce less parasympathetic activation than competition or working on the task without any social interaction. Research in this field may help us understand the psychophysiological basis of social interaction, providing an opportunity to establish interaction strategies that would be physiologically desirable, in order to promote well-being.

中文翻译：

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面对面二元组中的陌生人之间的合作产生了比竞争或单独工作更多的心血管激活

个人和共同的目标可以通过人与人之间的互动，合作和竞争来实现，这是实现这些目标的两种不同但相似的策略。尽管如此，在使用非侵入性措施（例如心率（HR））分析这些类型的社会互动（尤其是合作）对自主神经系统反应的影响的文献中仍存在空白。对中枢神经系统的HR和其他心血管变量的调节提供了有关如何鼓励或阻止社交活动和亲社会行为的信息。实际上，通过有效的心脏控制，可以更灵活地与环境互动并进行有效的情绪调节。因此，这项研究的主要目的是调查陌生人（180名健康的年轻参与者）的心率变异性（HRV），这些陌生人被设定为在面对面的二元组中进行合作或竞争（在同性参与者之间）或独自工作（如控制条件），将这些任务的结果（正面或负面）和性别作为调节变量。我们发现，与单独参加比赛和/或工作的参与者相比，进行合作的参与者的HR较高，而高频（HF）HRV较低。在性别和结局方面，合作且处于失败状态的男性的HF-HRV水平要低于完成负结果的简单任务的男性。因此，我们的研究表明，陌生人在面对面的二联体之间的合作可能比竞争或在没有任何社会互动的情况下完成任务更少产生副交感神经激活。