lecture 9 - mimicry Flashcards
mimicry occurs without….
-give examples
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.
the chameleon effect
-explain the experiment done to prove this
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
the chameleon effect
-experiment results
the motor behaviour of participants unintentionally matched that of strangers with whom they worked on a task.
when is the tendency to mimic others strong
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
reasons for mimicry
-ideomotor action
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
what is the principle of ideomotor action based on
-apply this to mimicry
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.
reasons for mimicry
-preparation for interaction
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.
benefits of mimicry
Increases liking and rapport with interaction partners and enhances the smoothness of interactions
individuals mimic those who…..
Individuals mimic more those whom they like, and like more those who mimic them
experiment of images and mimicry
-results
-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
pen dropping experiment
-are individuals more likely to help somebody pick up dropped items if they have been mimicked
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
mimicry waitress experiment
method
results
- 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
overall how is mimicry beneficial
-it is a way of achieving social connectedness
-mechanism by which social goals can b fulfilled
what is the evolutionary perspective
-says that a failure to mimic means social isolation and hence evolutionary disadvantage
-they need to belong
is mimcry
-adaptive
-automatic
-inevitable
-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
which factors moderate the extent to which someone is mimicked in social encounters
-charecteristics of perceiver
-the situation
-the relationship between perceiver and target
how can a persons goals / intentions affect mimicry
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
mimicry in
-context
-ingroup and outgroup members
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
cultural differences in mimicry
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
anglo-american and hispanic-american cultural differences in mimicry
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)
anglo-american and hispanic-american cultural differences in mimicry
results
-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.
