Abstract
The paper investigates the role of mimicry in the reduction of infra-humanization. Mimicry as an automatic imitation of a partner’s behavior (this is known as “social glue”) connects people (Miles et al., 2010). Empirical findings have confirmed that mimicry leads to favorable treatment of the mimicker (Van Baaren et al., 2003). The mechanism is reciprocal: the mimicker is more positively inclined towards the person mimicked (Chartrand and Bargh, 1999). Mimicry increases the sense of interpersonal closeness, reciprocal similarity, and facilitates the flow of interaction and helping behavior (Stel et al., 2008). At the same time, results point to a spontaneous inhibition of mimicry in the contact with members of negatively stereotyped groups (Bourgeois and Hess, 2008). So than, there are reasons to believe that purposeful activation of mimicry may reduce manifestations of negative attitudes towards others, i.e., infra-humanization. It was expected that imitating a model shown on video would lower the level of infra-humanization, i.e., perceiving another individual as less capable than the Self of experiencing exclusively human (secondary) emotions. The study sample consisted of 117 female students. The study followed an experimental design and was conducted individually. It employed questionnaires and a purpose-made video recording showing a model whose facial expressions were to be mimicked by the participants. The results confirmed the predictions. Mimicking facial expressions reduced the level of infra-humanization compared to the no mimicking and control conditions [F(2,114) = 3.39, p = 0.037, η2 = 0.06].
Highlights
The purpose of the study was to explore factors that mitigate the negative aspects of intergroup attitudes reflected in infra-humanization
In order to test the hypothesis regarding the impact of mimicry upon attribution of the valence of primary and secondary as well as positive and negative emotions to the self and the mimicked person a 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 ANOVA was calculated, with the first three factors varying within subjects, and the last one between subjects
Object type was found to significantly differentiate the valence of attributed emotions [F(1,114) = 76.46, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.40], a higher valence of all emotions was attributed to the self (M = 3.23) than the other (M = 2.87)
Summary
The purpose of the study was to explore factors that mitigate the negative aspects of intergroup attitudes reflected in infra-humanization. Our research was inspired by numerous reports indicating the mediating role of mimicry in enhancing prosocial behavior. The effect turned out to be non-specific: it was still observed when the mimicked actor was not associated with the charity receiving donations. This proves that mimicry can modify social attitudes by enhancing prosocial attitudes observed in the model. Due to the basic nature of the regulatory function of mimicry, it can be expected to affect other aspects of social behavior as well. Its inhibitory effect on negative attitudes, including infra-humanization, appears to have important theoretical and practical implications
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