Psychological distance and imitation

Abstract

AbstractImitation is a ubiquitous part of everybody's life. When imitating other people, a certain psychological distance is always involved—for instance, the imitator may be near to or distant from observed behavior in space (e.g., when one is learning a task face‐to‐face vs. by watching a video) or time (e.g., the behavior appears in a new vs. an old video). In this article, we review recent research that investigated the influence of psychological distance on imitation. In doing so, we differentiate between imitation of movements and imitation of goals. The reviewed research suggests that movement‐based (vs. goal‐based) imitation is stronger when the observed behavior is near than when it is distant. Additionally, the influence of psychological distance on imitation appears to happen already on an input level. That is, the level of construal guides observers' attention either to the observed movement or its goal, facilitating the imitation of the respective action feature. In addition, we review research demonstrating that psychological distance reduces goal contagion—a finding that seems to be at odds with studies showing that distance increases goal‐based imitation. We identify differences between the two lines of research (goal contagion vs. goal imitation) and discuss open questions and future directions that result from the reviewed findings.