The emergence of collective behaviors in networks of dynamical units in pairwise interaction has been explained as the effect of diffusive coupling. How does the presence of higher-order interaction impact the onset of spontaneous or induced synchronous behavior? Inspired by actuation and measurement constraints typical of physical and engineered systems, we propose a diffusion mechanism over hypergraphs that explains the onset of synchronization through a clarifying analogy with signed graphs. Our findings are mathematically backed by general conditions for convergence to the synchronous state.