Mimicry (psychology)

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In psychology, mimicry is the phenomenon that people unconsciously and automatically imitate other people. The name of this behavior was taken from biology , where mimicry describes the similarity of animals of a certain species with those of a second species, so that animals of a third species cannot reliably distinguish the other two species and confuse them with one another.

to form

There is verbal, emotional, and behavioral mimicry, as well as facial expression mimicry.

For example, a conversation leads to the fact that you adapt to the speed of speech, the choice of words and the dialect of the other person. If someone else shows an emotional facial expression, we also activate the muscles in the face that are necessary for this and also feel at least partially like our counterpart. Other behavior is also mimicked, such as wiggling the foot or posture.

Occur

Since mimicry occurs completely unconsciously and automatically, mimicry shows itself in all direct (interaction) and indirect (e.g. seeing someone on TV) social situations. The reasons are that one basically has the need to be liked or to belong to a certain group of people, and thus has a strong affiliation motive . This is intensified when you are in a good mood, since you then tend to fall back on automatic processes and display a cognitive style called "field-dependent" .

Mimicry affects social and non-social factors. You tend to imitate people with whom you can identify ( ingroup ) or who are sympathetic to you in order to signal your own sympathy and to gain their sympathy. This leads to the impersonator liking the other more and building a better relationship. Mimicry therefore leads to a feeling of connectedness that acts like a social glue that also increases willingness to help. In addition, social mimicry in general increases prosocial tendencies towards third parties that go beyond the direct interaction dyad and is therefore of elementary importance for the ability to cooperate. On a non-social level, for example, mimicry makes it easier to be persuaded if one is imitated. It also has consequences for the self-regulatory ability of the imitator.

Reason

There are a number of theories as to why people imitate other people. It was shown that we have a neural, passive perception-behavior connection, so that the perception of the behavior of another automatically leads to the neural activation of the neurons in our body that are responsible for this behavior (see: Mirror neurons ). This connection arose through evolutionary advantage, today it mainly serves to enable socially appropriate behavior ( empathy , prosocial behavior, etc.). Mimicry functions as a “social glue”.

Trivia

The meaning of the term “mimicry” was for a time the most demanding question in the language part of HAWIE .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dimberg, U., Thunberg, M., & Elmehed, K. (2000). Unconscious facial reactions to emotional facial expressions. Psychological Science, 11 (1), 86-89.
  2. ^ Webb, JT (1969). Subject speech rates as a function of interviewer behavior. Language and Speech, 12, 54-67
  3. ↑ Giles, H. & Powesland, PF (1975). Speech styles and social evaluation. London: Academic Press.
  4. ^ Neumann, R. & Strack, F. (2000). Mood contagion: The automatic transfer of mood between persons. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 211-223.
  5. ↑ a b Chartrand, TL & Bargh, JA (1999). The chameleon effect: The perception-behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 93-910.
  6. ↑ Bavelas, JB, Black, A., Chovil, N., Lemery, CR, & Mullet, J. (1988). Form and function in motor mimicry. Topographic evidence that the primary function is communicative. Human Communication Research, 14, 275-299.
  7. ↑ a b Chartrand, TL, & Dalton, AN (2009). Mimicry: Its ubiquity, importance, and functionality. In E. Morsella, JA Bargh, PM Gollwitzer (Eds.), Oxford handbook of human action (pp. 458-483). New York, NY US: Oxford University Press.
  8. ↑ a b c Paschek, Nicole (2018). We are all imitators - and that's a good thing! Psychologie heute, April 2018, pp. 46–49
  9. ↑ Lakin, J. & Chartrand, TL (2003). Using nonconscious behavioral mimicry to create affiliation and rapport. Psychological Science, 14, 334-339.
  10. ^ Van Baaren, RB, Fockenberg, D .A., Holland, RW, Janssen, L., & van Knippenberg, A. (2006). The moody chameleon: The effect of mood on nonconscious mimicry. Social Cognition, 24, 426-437.
  11. ^ Van Baaren, RW, Horgan, TG, Chartrand, TL, & Dijkmans, M. (2004). The forest, the trees and the chameleon: Context-dependency and mimicry. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 86, 453-459.
  12. ↑ Ashton-James, CE, van Baaren, RW, Chartrand, TL, Decety, J., & Karremass, J. (2007). Mimicry and me: The impact of mimicry on self-construction. Social Cognition, 25, 518-535.
  13. ↑ van Swool, LM (2003). The effects of nonverbal mirroring on perceived persuasiveness, agreement with imitator, and reciprocity in a group discussion. Communication Research, 30, 461-480
  14. ^ Dalton, AN, Chartrand, TL, & Finkel, EJ (2008). The depleted chameleon: Self-regulatory consequences of social asynchrony. Unpublished manuscript.