Fundamental statistics in psychology and education.

The "chameleon effect" refers to the tendency to adopt the postures, gestures, and mannerisms of interaction partners (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999) This type of mimicry occurs outside of conscious awareness, and without any intent to mimic or imitate Empirical evidence suggests a bi-directional relationship between nonconscious mimicry on the one hand, and liking, rapport, and affiliation on the other That is, nonconscious mimicry creates affiliation, and affiliation can be ex- pressed through nonconscious mimicry We argue that mimicry played an impor- tant role in human evolution Initially, mimicry may have had survival value by helping humans communicate We propose that the purpose of mimicry has now evolved to serve a social function Nonconscious behavioral mimicry increases af- filiation, which serves to foster relationships with others We review current re- search in light of this proposed framework and suggest future areas of research

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The Chameleon Effect as Social Glue: Evidence for the Evolutionary Significance of Nonconscious Mimicry

Recent studies have shown that mimicry occurs unintentionally and even among strangers. In the present studies, we investigated the consequences of this automatic phenomenon in order to learn more about the adaptive function it serves. In three studies, we consistently found that mimicry increases prosocial behavior. Participants who had been mimicked were more helpful and generous toward other people than were nonmimicked participants. These beneficial consequences of mimicry were not restricted to behavior directed toward the mimicker, but included behavior directed toward people not directly involved in the mimicry situation. These results suggest that the effects of mimicry are not simply due to increased liking for the mimicker, but are due to increased prosocial orientation in general.

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Mimicry and Prosocial Behavior

Behavioral mimicry—the automatic imitation of gestures, postures, mannerisms, and other motor movements—is pervasive in human interactions The current review focuses on two recent themes in the mimicry literature First, an analysis of the moderators of mimicry uncovers the various motivational, social, emotional, and personality factors that lead to more or less mimicry of an interaction partner in a given situation Second, a significant amount of recent research has identified important downstream consequences of mimicking or being mimicked by another person These include not only increased prosociality between interactants, but also unexpected effects on the individual, such as cognitive processing style, attitudes, consumer preferences, self-regulatory ability, and academic performance Behavioral mimicry is also placed in its broader context: a form of interpersonal coordination It is compared to interactional synchrony and other social contagion effects, including verbal, goal, and emotional con

The Antecedents and Consequences of Human Behavioral Mimicry

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Mimicry for money: Behavioral consequences of imitation

Distinctions have been made between two speech rate measures. Previously these measures have been studied only in naturalistic settings. Also, methodological problems in prior studies generated que...

Subject Speech Rates as a Function of Interviewer Behaviour

38 Ss were divided into 4 groups, each group being placed on a 21:1 fixed-ratio schedule. Group I received an increase in magnitude of reward at a late stage of learning; Group II received a decrease in magnitude of reward at the same point in learning. Group III received an increase in reward-size at an early point in learning, while Group IV received a decrease in magnitude of reward at an early stage of learning. As predicted, shifts in reward significantly influenced running time in Groups III and IV but not in Groups I and II. These results are discussed as relevant to secondary reinforcement and learned expectancy.

James T. Webb

Papers

Subject Speech Rates as a Function of Interviewer Behaviour

Effects of Varying Amount of Reward in Free Operant Conditioning of Humans on a Fixed-Ratio Schedule.