When the Wolf Wears Sheep’s Clothing

Abstract

Current research into the elicitors of nonconscious behavioral mimicry focuses almost exclusively on prosocial motives. Alternatively, the present research investigates whether the self-centered desire to be liked by others also induces mimicry. We investigate this issue by measuring the mimicry behavior of narcissists—a “dark personality” that is uniquely characterized by a desire to be liked by rather than by genuine liking for people. Narcissists are particularly motivated to form social alliances with high-status others. Hence, it was hypothesized that narcissistic participants would show more mimicry of higher status others (compared to lower status others). Support for this hypothesis was provided by a mixed within- and between-subjects field experiment in which the mimicry behavior of participants identified as being above or below average in subclinical narcissism was observed in a scripted interaction with a higher and lower status other.