The Effects of Shared Opinions on Nonverbal Mimicry

Abstract

People tend to automatically mimic others. This tendency is so compelling that people will mimic the behavior of a nearby stranger with whom they are not even interacting (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999), and people are generally unaware that they are engaging in mimicry (Bavelas, Black, Lemery, & Mullett, 1986;Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). Much research has found that mimicry has many socially useful functions that help strengthen interpersonal bonds, such as increasing rapport, liking, empathy, and prosocial behavior (for review, see Chartrand & Lakin, 2013). Chartrand and Lakin (2013) highlight two recent themes in the mimicry literature: moderators that lead to more or less mimicry in a given situation, for example, social, motivational, and emotional factors; and downstream consequences of mimicry, for example, prosocial behavior, attitudes, and consumer preferences. Other research has examined what factors may increase mimicry of another person (

The Effects of Difficult Co-Workers on Employee Attitudinal Responses and Intention to Leave Among Chinese Working Adults

“…Time and again, similarity is shown to positively impact social and work relationships (Bernerth et al, 2008;Mollenhorst et al, 2008;Sias et al, 2004;Van Swol, & Drury-Grogan, 2017). On the contrary, dissimilarity or individual difference is associated with repulsion (Mollenhorst et al, 2008;Singh et al, 2017;Singh & Ho, 2000;Snavely, 1981).…”

When and Why Mimicry is Facilitated and Attenuated

“…As people tend to like similar others (Byrne, ), similarity also influences mimicry. People, for instance, mimic more when others share their opinion (Bourgeois & Hess, ; Van Swol & Drury, ), and when others are from their own group rather than from another group (e.g., Yabar, Johnston, Miles, & Peace, ; Van der Schalk et al, ). Mimicry of happiness, however, is not affected by group membership (Bourgeois & Hess, ; Van der Schalk et al, ).…”

Self-categorization as a basis of behavioural mimicry: Experiments in The Hive

“…When–and why–do we copy the behaviour of others? Such mimicry applies to an extremely wide range of phenomena from the simplest reactions such as scratching and yawning [ 1 , 2 ] to more complex activities such as health related behaviours [ 3 ] and from the self-evidently purposive–such as food consumption [ 4 ]–to the apparently incidental, such as face touching [ 5 ], finger tapping [ 6 ], and foot shaking [ 7 ].…”

“…On the other hand, as studies of behaviour in emergencies show, we don’t follow everyone equally [ 32 , 33 ]. There are a range of studies which show that mimicry is more likely when one has some sort of social bond to the other [ 7 , 34 ]. This is true for behavioural ‘contagion’, whether of yawning [ 35 ], face touching [ 36 ] or key-pressing [ 37 ].…”