The Conversational Chameleon

Abstract

Verbal mimicry research claims that repeating words spoken by another makes people more eager to comply with requests made by the mimicker (e.g., fulfilling a request to donate to charity). Instead, another mechanism might explain these results. Recent studies found that when a request was preceded by engaging a participant in dialogue (defined as a short conversation), the participant was more willing to fulfill the request. Thus, verbal mimicry might be perceived in the same way as dialogue. If this is the case, a theoretical confound would be revealed. To test whether the mechanisms are different of the same, two field studies were conducted using a 2 (dialogue: yes/ no) × 2 (mimicry: yes/no) design. The study results revealed two main effects and no interaction effects, which means that verbal mimicry and dialogue are two distinct mechanisms. Interestingly, additive effects for these mechanisms were found.

The Effects of Synchronization With Either Joyful or Angry People on Perception of an Emotionally Neutral Person

“…When people are engaged in a discussion, they automatically converge upon a dialect (Giles, 1973), speaking rate (Street, 1984), speaking speed (Giles, Coupland, Coupland, Williams, & Nussbaum, 1992;Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974), vocal intensity (Natale, 1975), pausing frequency (Cappella & Planalp, 1981), and speech rhythm (Condon, 1976;Condon & Ogston, 1971;Newtson, 1994). They also mimic each other's facial expressions (Kulesza, Dolinski, Wicher, & Huisman, 2016;McHugo, Lanzetta, Sullivan, Masters, & Englis, 1985;Riehle, Kempkensteffen, & Lincoln, 2017). Such nonverbal synchronization cues facilitate the unfolding of the interaction.…”