Nonconscious Mimicry Occurs when Affiliation Goals are Present

Source: Diego Reinero & Jay Van Bavel—New York University

People are social chameleons and regularly engage in nonconscious behavioral mimicry. This occurs when an individual unwittingly imitates the behaviors of another person, such as crossing one's legs moments after a person sitting adjacent does so, or adjusting one's body posture to match a conversation partner. Rapport between two people increases behavioral mimicry, just as mimicry also increases rapport. Psychologists have posited that this mimicry is attributed to a perception-behavior link;¹ seeing a person engage in a behavior activates that behavioral representation, which then makes the perceiver more likely to engage in that behavior him- or herself.

The following experiment expands on these previous findings by testing whether people, without intention or awareness, use mimicry to their advantage. Because goals activate behavioral strategies and plans of action that help people pursue those goals,² Lakin and Chartrand hypothesized that individuals would mimic another person more when they have a goal to affiliate than when they do not.³

1. Participant Recruitment

Conduct a power analysis and recruit a sufficient number of participants and obtain informed consent from the participants.
Randomly assign participants to one of three conditions: Nonconscious affiliation prime, conscious affiliation goal, or no goal.

2. Data Collection

Bring participants to a computer station and tell them that they will be completing several unrelated experiments, the first of which is a test of visual acui

The results indicated that participants in both the nonconscious-affiliation goal and conscious-affiliation goal conditions exhibited more behavioral mimicry (i.e., face touching) than those in the no-goal condition (Figure 1). No significant differences existed between the nonconscious-affiliation and the conscious-affiliation conditions.

People mimic one another constantly, typically nonconsciously, which often results in improved feelings of rapport with another person (so long as the other person is not aware that they are being mimicked). This experiment finds evidence that nonconscious behavioral mimicry occurs when affiliation goals are present, whether those goals are subliminally primed or explicitly stated. This study also demonstrates that it is not necessary for a person to be physically present to be mimicked.

Build

Chartrand, T.L., & Bargh, J.A. (1999). The chameleon effect: The perception-behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 893-910.
Gollwitzer, P.M. (1990). Action phases and mind-sets. In E.T. Higgins & R.M. Sorrentino (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition (Vol. 2, pp. 53-92). New York: Guilford Press
Lakin, J. L., & Chartrand, T. L. (2003). Using nonconscious behavioral mimicry to create affiliation and rapport. Psychological science, 14(4), 334-339.
Chartrand, T.L., & Bargh, J.A. (1996). Automatic activation of impression formation and memorization goals: Nonconscious goal priming reproduces effects of explicit task instructions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 464-478.
Bargh, J. A., Bond, R. N., Lombardi, W. J., & Tota, M. E. (1986). The additive nature of chronic and temporary sources of construct accessibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 869-878.
Bargh, J. A., Raymond, E, Pryor, J., & Strack, E (1995). Attractiveness of the underling: An automatic power → sex association and its consequences for sexual harassment and aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 768-781.
Rayner, K. (1978). Eye movement latencies for parafoveally presented words. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 11,13-16.