The Role of Emotional Mimicry in Intergroup Relations

Abstract

What is the role of emotional mimicry in intergroup relations? There are different theoretical accounts of the function and underlying processes of emotional mimicry. A review of research on emotional mimicry suggests that, in general, emotional mimicry reinforces existing group boundaries, rather than breaking or dissolving them. Specifically, there is consistent evidence that people tend to mimic similar others more than dissimilar others. Given that ingroup members are by definition more similar to each other than to outgroup members, this implies that the former are more likely to be mimicked than the latter. In turn, mimicry improves social bonds with others, which then facilitates ingroup relations. The most primitive and implicit pathway for mimicry is via embodiment, and it can only take place when there is an actual interaction between group members. To the degree that such processes are presumed to be automatic, it is likely that they tend to reinforce social exclusion of outgroup members. By contrast, the most explicit pathway to mimicry is via perspective taking, in which one deliberately tries to take the other’s perspective. This process does not require the actual presence of members of other groups, but some form of empathy when judging or expecting to meet other group members. This process is more amenable to top-down influences. The research on mimicry also converges on the notion that when mimicry (or in fact other forms of behavior matching) is present, interactions can be expected to be more affiliative. Thus, with effort, mimicry can also be a tool for improving intergroup relations. As always, however, it requires more effort to cross group boundaries than to stay within them.

Empowering Mimicry: Female Leader Role Models Empower Women in Leadership Tasks Through Body Posture Mimicry

“…We propose and test a two-step process we call empowering mimicry. As a first step of the process, consistent with the literature on unconscious mimicry (Chartrand and Bargh 1999 ) and the proposition that individuals mimic in order to learn appropriate responses (Hess and Fischer 2017 ; Kavanagh and Winkielman 2016 ), we propose that women mimic the body posture of female leader role models. If the role model shows an open body posture, women will mimic this posture during a leadership task by showing more open postures themselves.…”

“…However, we argue that the empowering effects of these role models occur in part because women view the female leader as an inspiring role model worth emulating, a hypothesis consistent with the learning goal of mimicry (Hess and Fischer 2017 ; Kavanagh and Winkielman 2016 ). Thus, we propose that empowering mimicry effects would not necessarily extend to exposure to non-leader, unknown female targets.…”

“…If the target is perceived as an iconic, successful leader, it is likely that a social interaction is not envisioned. Instead, a learning goal may be activated (Hess and Fischer 2017 ; Kavanagh and Winkielman 2016 ). As a result, mimicry of the power postures of the recognized leader is more likely to occur.…”

“…Initially, the goal of mimicry was thought to be affiliation: People mimic each other as a way of increasing liking for the interaction partner (chameleon effect; Chartrand and Bargh 1999 ) and building harmonious social interactions (Vacharkulksemsuk and Fredrickson 2012 ). More recently, it was suggested that mimicry is also driven by a learning goal, such that individuals mimic others in order to produce the appropriate response to a situation (Hess and Fischer 2017 ; Kavanagh and Winkielman 2016 ). In other words, we mimic others in order to learn how to act and react in a given situation.…”

Explicit and Implicit Responses of Seeing Own vs. Others’ Emotions: An Electromyographic Study on the Neurophysiological and Cognitive Basis of the Self-Mirroring Technique

“…The STM foundation can be explored more thoroughly by referring to the phenomenon of facial (or emotional) mimicry, which has been defined as "the imitation of emotional (facial) expressions of another person" (Hess and Fischer, 2013;Hess and Fischer, 2017). In the literature, facial mimicry has been investigated by presenting participants with emotional stimuli and recording the activity of specific facial muscles, typically through electromyography (EMG; e.g., Dimberg, 1982;Larsen et al, 2003), and less frequently using the Facial Action Coding System 1 (Ekman and Friesen, 1978;Murata et al, 2016).…”