lecture 9 - mimicry

Question 1

mimicry occurs without….
-give examples

Answer 1

Behavioural mimicry occurs without deliberate intention or conscious awareness

-Individuals mimic without awareness:
-the postures (Berger & Hadley, 1975)
-gestures (Bavelas et al., 1987)
-facial expressions (Meltzoff & Moore, 1977)
-speech patterns and accents of their interaction partners.

Question 2

the chameleon effect
-explain the experiment done to prove this

Answer 2

Ppts took part in two 10-minutesessions in which each of them, along with another ppt (confederate), described various photographs from popular magazines

The confederate in one session frequently rubbed their face, whereas the confederate in the other session continuously shook his or her foot.

-the participant was videotaped

Question 3

the chameleon effect
-experiment results

Answer 3

the motor behaviour of participants unintentionally matched that of strangers with whom they worked on a task.

Question 4

when is the tendency to mimic others strong

Answer 4

Follow-up studies have shown that this tendency to mimic others is particularly strong when people have a need to affiliate with others and when the others in question are well liked

Question 5

reasons for mimicry
-ideomotor action

Answer 5

william james 1890 - first explanation by proposing his principle his principle of ideomotor action, whereby merely thinking about a behaviour makes its actual performance more likely.

-eg thinking of eating a bowl of ice cream makes us more likely to get ice cream

Question 6

what is the principle of ideomotor action based on
-apply this to mimicry

Answer 6

based on the fact that the brain regions responsible for perception overlap with those responsible for action.
When this principle is applied to mimicry, it means that when we see others behave in a particular way, the idea of that behaviour is brought to mind (consciously or otherwise) and makes us more likely to behave that way ourselves.

Question 7

reasons for mimicry
-preparation for interaction

Answer 7

The second reason we reflexively mimic others is to prepare for interacting with other people.

-Interactions tend to go more smoothly if we establish some rapport.

Question 8

benefits of mimicry

Answer 8

Increases liking and rapport with interaction partners and enhances the smoothness of interactions

Question 9

individuals mimic those who…..

Answer 9

Individuals mimic more those whom they like, and like more those who mimic them

Question 10

experiment of images and mimicry
-results

Answer 10

-ppts judged a series of images
Observers perceive those individuals who display postural mimicry during an interaction to be friends but those who do not show mimicry to be strangers
-bias social perceptions
-mimicry = friends

Question 11

pen dropping experiment
-are individuals more likely to help somebody pick up dropped items if they have been mimicked

Answer 11

Ppts had to verbally describe their opinion towards 10 specific advertisements for approximately 30 s.

During the task, the experimenter mimicked the posture, copying their body orientation (e.g., leaning forward), the position of their arms, and the position of their legs. Upon passing the ppt, experimenter “accidentally” dropped six pens that were on top of several papers. If the participant did not pick up the pens within 10 s, the experimenter picked up the pens herself

Individuals are more likely to help somebody pick up dropped items if they had been mimicked in a previous encounter, regardless of whether the person who had dropped the items was their previous interaction partner (Expt. 1)or a stranger (Expt. 2)
Influence on subsequent behaviour :Mimicry = more help

Question 12

mimicry waitress experiment
method
results

Answer 12

• a waitress either mimicked half her customers by literally repeating their order or did not mimic her customers
  -waitress received higher tips from customers who they mimicked rather than ones they didn’t

Question 13

overall how is mimicry beneficial

Answer 13

-it is a way of achieving social connectedness
-mechanism by which social goals can b fulfilled

Question 14

what is the evolutionary perspective

Answer 14

-says that a failure to mimic means social isolation and hence evolutionary disadvantage
-they need to belong

Question 15

is mimcry
-adaptive
-automatic
-inevitable

Answer 15

-behavioural mimicry is adaptive and can occur spontaneously without conscious awareness, automatic

-however mimcry is not inevitable
-seeing another person perform a given action does not compel one to perform the same action oneself

Question 16

which factors moderate the extent to which someone is mimicked in social encounters

Answer 16

-charecteristics of perceiver
-the situation
-the relationship between perceiver and target

Question 17

how can a persons goals / intentions affect mimicry

Answer 17

Goals or intentions incompatible with the to-be-mimicked behaviour leads to reduced, or no, mimicry

-individual differences : high and low self monitors
High-self monitors are good at adapting to the situation and getting along with others. In some contexts, they might be seen as being “fake,” but it is also a social skill that can promote interpersonal harmony. Low self-monitoring means that people are less likely to change their behavior to fit in

Question 18

mimicry in
-context
-ingroup and outgroup members

Answer 18

Greater mimicry with context-dependent than with context-independent information processing

Group membership (Yabar et al., 2006)Mimicry for ingroup members >mimicry for outgroup members

Question 19

cultural differences in mimicry

Answer 19

People of various cultures differ in their tendencies to mimic others, and in how much mimicry they expect in social interactions.

Cultures also differ in the degree to which they are thrown off when the people they interact with fail to mimic them

Question 20

anglo-american and hispanic-american cultural differences in mimicry

Answer 20

In some of the sessions, the interviewer deliberately mirrored the interviewee’s behaviour—crossing his legs when the interviewee crossed his, resting his chin on his hand when the interviewee did so, and so on. In other sessions, the interviewer was careful to avoid mirroring the interviewee.
Hispanic cultures are more attuned to the emotions and behaviour of others(reflecting a value called sympathia)

Question 21

anglo-american and hispanic-american cultural differences in mimicry
results

Answer 21

-hispanic cultures are more attuned to the emotions and behaviour of others (reflecting a value called sympathia)

-hispanic participants performed better when the interviewer mirrored their behaviour

-when the interviewer mirrored a hispanic participant , the participant reported less anxiety and was rated more highly by observers than when there was no mirroring

For Anglo-American participants, it made no difference whether the interviewer mirrored their behaviour or not.