2003/06/17 by Jessica L. Lakin, Tanya L. Chartrand · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Action Observation and Synchronization #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Social and Intergroup Psychology
paper · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.14481
openalex publication_date 2003/06/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Nonconscious behavioral mimicry occurs when a person unwittingly imitates the behaviors of another person. This mimicry has been attributed to a direct link between perceiving a behavior and performing that same behavior. The current experiments explored whether having a goal to affiliate augments the tendency to mimic the behaviors of interaction partners. Experiment 1 demonstrated that having an affiliation goal increases nonconscious mimicry, and Experiment 2 further supported this proposition by demonstrating that people who have unsuccessfully attempted to affiliate in an interaction subsequently exhibit more mimicry than those who have not experienced such a failure. Results suggest that behavioral mimicry may be part of a person's repertoire of behaviors, used nonconsciously, when there is a desire to create rapport.