Where is the love? The social aspects of mimicry

Abstract

One striking characteristic of human social interactions is unconscious mimicry; people have a tendency to take over each other's posture, mannerisms and behaviours without awareness. Our goal is to make the case that unconscious mimicry plays an important role in human social interaction and to show that mimicry is closely related to and moderated by our connectedness to others. First we will position human unconscious mimicry in relation to types of imitation used in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Then we will provide support for social moderation of mimicry. Characteristics of both the mimicker and the mimickee influence the degree of mimicry in a social interaction. Next, we turn to the positive social consequences of this unconscious mimicry and we will present data showing how being imitated makes people more assimilative in general. In the final section, we discuss what these findings imply for theorizing on the mechanisms of imitation and point out several issues that need to be resolved before a start can be made to integrate this field in the broader context of research on imitation.

Top-down social modulation of interpersonal observation–execution

“…Although we do not have data to specify the direction of these interpretative processes, it is noteworthy that visual attention to stimuli is also heightened during social-cultural environments (Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2001;van Baaren et al, 2009). For example, visual attention to environmental stimuli may operate in an independent manner whereby an observer has the tendency to ignore mannerisms leading to reductions in mimicry (van Baaren et al, 2003).…”

How does it feel to act together?

“…For instance, whether people decide to act together often depends at least in part on the nature of the coordination to be achieved and on their expectations regarding their capacity to coordinate online. Conversely, there is evidence that low-level coordination (e.g., in the form of bodily synchronization) has an effect on how people perceive social interactions and those they interact with Farmer & Tsakiris, 2012;Hove & Risen, 2009;Miles et al, 2009;van Baaren et al, 2009) and can foster cooperation within groups by strengthening feelings of social affiliation and group cohesion (Wiltermuth & Heath, 2009). …”

The pragmatics of mimesis: A case study of intercultural email communication

“…As Donald (1995Donald ( , p. 1096 noted, "mimetic action must be not only inventive, but also consistent and precise, and thus subject to conscious scrutiny and improvement." Such mimetic engagement is so much a part of people's daily practices that they often do not even notice it (van Baaren et al, 2009), which also explains why the moral orders that we inherit through socialisation are often unnoticed until they get violated (Garfinkel, 1964).…”

“…Our tendency to unconsciously mimic is moderated by both enduring and temporary characteristics of the mimicker and the mimickee. (van Baaren et al, 2009(van Baaren et al, p. 2382 This mimetic practice or accommodation towards the conversational partner functioning at some times and not at others has, in the relevant literature, been attributed to a range of factors including in-group/out-group membership (van Baaren et al, 2009), social status/power (Giles, 2016), liking/disliking of the conversational partner (Dragojevic et al, 2016;van Baaren et al, 2009), or even one's ability to produce similar language/behaviour (Dragojevic et al, 2016). Our analysis suggests that, although it is not always in operation, there is a tendency for mimesis (in the form of imitation or convergence) to operate.…”

“…This idea of insiders is important, as Donald (1995Donald ( , p. 1094 stated that "learning the mimetic dimensions of another culture is often much more difficult than acquiring the language." Additionally, research by van Baaren et al (2009) has shown that when out-group members mimic in-group members, those in-group members are likely to like them less, not more. As this paper uses intercultural data, this point ought to be borne in mind throughout the discussion and will be revisited later.…”