Tacit coordination in close dyads: The use of social focal points

Abstract

Tacit coordination is crucial for many social interactions, including those among couples. Two different coordination requirements have been distinguished. Matching problems require interdependent actors to choose the same action; mismatching problems require the choice of different actions. We tested the performance of romantic couples relative to complete strangers in both matching and mismatching coordination. Social focal point theory (SFPT) posits that knowledge of social similarity in a domain pertinent to the coordination task will enhance matching coordination while knowledge of divergence will enhance mismatching coordination. Hence, we predicted that couples are more likely to detect and use social focal points in matching but not mismatching tasks, due to their interpersonal similarity and their wealth of mutual social knowledge. Indeed, couples were significantly better than strangers at matching but not at mismatching. Further analyses suggest that interplay between social knowledge and task demands, as delineated in SFPT, determines coordination success.