Abstract
Imitation–matching the configural body movements of another individual–plays a crucial part in social interaction. We investigated whether automatic imitation is not only influenced by who we imitate (ingroup vs. outgroup member) but also by the nature of an expected interaction situation (competitive vs. cooperative). In line with assumptions from Social Identity Theory), we predicted that both social group membership and the expected situation impact on the level of automatic imitation. We adopted a 2 (group membership target: ingroup, outgroup) x 2 (situation: cooperative, competitive) design. The dependent variable was the degree to which participants imitated the target in a reaction time automatic imitation task. 99 female students from two British Universities participated. We found a significant two-way interaction on the imitation effect. When interacting in expectation of cooperation, imitation was stronger for an ingroup target compared to an outgroup target. However, this was not the case in the competitive condition where imitation did not differ between ingroup and outgroup target. This demonstrates that the goal structure of an expected interaction will determine the extent to which intergroup relations influence imitation, supporting a social identity approach.
Highlights
In everyday life, people engage regularly in some sort of imitation, the involuntary mimicry of another person in terms of their movements, facial expressions, and emotions [1]
Do perceivers imitate more strongly when both ingroup membership and an affiliation goal are present? What happens when ingroup membership acts as a facilitator but at the same time a disaffiliation goal in terms of competitive goal structure is present? The aim of the present study is to extend previous work on social moderators of automatic imitation by examining the interplay of intergroup membership and the context in which such group membership occurs
The present results show that intergroup membership as well as the expected goal structure of an anticipated interaction act as social moderators for automatic imitation effects
Summary
People engage regularly in some sort of imitation, the involuntary mimicry of another person in terms of their movements, facial expressions, and emotions [1]. Imitation serves as a foundation for a beneficial social exchange and is described as one basic facet of social interaction [2,3,4]. It is suggested that imitation makes smooth social interaction possible and serves as an important communicative tool that states that “I like you” [5, 6]. We investigate how intergroup and situational features of an interaction can modulate movement imitation. The term ‘imitation’ refers to all situations where an observer performs the same action as that which they see, including both deliberate and involuntary copying of another person. It is the latter situation which we are concerned with in the present paper. We focus on the PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0162880 September 22, 2016
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