Modulation of facial mimicry by attitudes

Likowski, Katja U.; Mühlberger, Andreas; Seibt, Beate; Pauli, Paul; Weyers, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2007.10.007

Cited by 178 publications

(175 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…As people mimic each other continuously in daily life, our findings have an important additional value for our knowledge of processes that can reduce peoples' negative reactions to innocent victims. Whether or not the expressions of other people will be spontaneously mimicked (as assessed in Study 1) depends on the kind of facial expressions that are being displayed, whether the expressions are seen as real, whether people feel empathy and liking for the person and whether the person is regarded as an in-or out-group member (e.g., Bourgeois & Hess, 2008;Likowski, Mühlberger, Seibt, Pauli, & Weyers, 2008;Stel & Vonk, 2009;Stel, Van Baaren, et al, 2010). Thus, if the tendency to spontaneously mimic is reduced, one can consciously mimic a victim as a means to reduce the chances of this person becoming victimized twice.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Mimicry and the Psychology of the Belief in a Just World: Imitating the Behaviors of Others Reduces the Blaming of Innocent Victims

2012

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Innocent victims of crime are often blamed for what happened to them. In this article, we examine the hypothesis that victim blaming can be significantly reduced when people mimic the behavior of the victim or even a person unrelated to the crime. Participants watched a person on a video after which we assessed the extent of their spontaneous mimicry reactions (Study 1) or participants were instructed to mimic or not to mimic the movements of this person (Study 2). Then, they were informed about a rape and criminal assault and judged the degree to which they thought the victims were responsible for the crime. One of the crimes happened to the same person as the person they previously did or did not mimic. The other crime happened to a person unrelated to the mimicry situation. Results of both studies revealed that previously mimicking the victim or an unrelated person reduced the degree to which victims were being blamed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Mimicry and the Psychology of the Belief in a Just World: Imitating the Behaviors of Others Reduces the Blaming of Innocent Victims

2012

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“…The presence of an affiliation goal does indeed significantly increase the likelihood that mimicry will appear. In addition, social attitudes and group membership appeared to modulate mimicry (Bourgeois & Hess, 2008;Likowski, Mülberger, Seibt, Pauli, &Weyers, 2008;Yabar, Johnston, Miles, & Peace, 2006).…”

Section: Mimicry In Social Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 96%

The stereotyper and the chameleon: The effects of stereotype use on perceivers’ mimicry

Castelli

Pavan

Ferrari

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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Interpersonal dynamics may play a crucial role in the perpetuation of stereotypes. In an experimental study, participants interacted with a confederate who provided either stereotypeconsistent or stereotype-inconsistent descriptions about the elderly. Based on the assumption that mimicry represents a social glue that fosters interpersonal liking and affiliation, we assessed the extent to which participants mimicked the nonverbal behaviors of the confederate as a function of the stereotypicality of the descriptions. Results showed that nonconscious mimicry was more likely when the speaker relied on stereotypes rather than on stereotype-inconsistent information. In Study 2 the effect was replicated in relation to national stereotypes. This finding indicates that stereotypers are faced with subtle nonverbal cues from the audience that can retroactively reinforce their behaviors and thus make stereotype dismissal so difficult to be achieved. ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTMimicking stereotypers 3The stereotyper and the chameleon:The effects of stereotype use on perceivers' mimicry Stereotypes are very resistant to change. Indeed, intraindividual cognitive processes tend to selectively enhance the encoding and memory for stereotype-consistent information (see Fiske, 1998), and interpersonal communication processes tend to favor stereotype-consistent information (Lyons & Kashima, 2003;Ruscher, 1998; see Kashima, Klein, & Clark, 2007, for a review). For instance, when a story is transmitted through communication chains, it rapidly undergoes very specific transformation such that stereotype-consistent information is retained whereas stereotypeinconsistent information tends to be omitted (Lyons & Kashima, 2001. In this way, recipients of communication are finally left with biased descriptions of persons and events. In addition, stereotype-consistent and -inconsistent information is transmitted at different levels of abstraction, and the use of abstract language in the case of stereotypical information further conveys the idea that stereotypes do generalize across situations and group members (Wigboldus, Semin, &

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“…A last important characteristic of mimicry is that it only occurs spontaneously when there is a minimal form of similarity or affiliation between DO WE MIMIC WHAT WE SEE OR WHAT WE KNOW? 7 observer and target (Bourgeois & Hess, 2008;Likowski, Mühlberger, Seibt, Pauli, & Weyers, 2008).…”

Section: Do We Mimic What We See or What We Know?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interestingly, Likowski, Mühlberger, Seibt, Pauli, and Weyers (2008) demonstrated that this is the case even when attitudes are newly formed by narratives about a specific character. In line with similarity at the individual level, similarity at the group level may also foster mimicry.…”

Section: Do We Mimic What We See or What We Know? 11mentioning

confidence: 99%