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Mimicry is Everywhere.
The Mimicker and The Mimickee.
Mimicry is manifested in various ways and often the mimicker neither intends to mimic nor is consciously aware of doing so.
Are humans born to mimic?
It is tempting to interpret the discovery of the mirror neuron system as a complete answer to the question of how we mimic.
The presence of a mirror system in the human brain implies that we are born to imitate and that mirroring is the only automatic behavioral response to perceived action?
A casual glance at humans interacting at an office, restaurant, bar, park or at home will reveal many manifestations of our proclivity to mimic others.
We often aren’t trying to imitate the other human and we aren’t aware of mimicking them.
Is the function of mimicry to signal to others that we understand and empathize with them?
And do we mimic because we want to signal this?
Humans are intensely social animals and research suggests mimicry is a critical part of human social interactions.
It is intimately tied to relationships, liking and empathy, functioning both as a signal of rapport and as a tool to generate rapport.
Its use can occur entirely outside of awareness and yet it can also be used consciously and deliberately.
It has important consequences both within and beyond the mimicry duality. As it appears to be such a critical part of social functioning that the brain may have even evolved specific capabilities to facilitate its use.
Human mimicry has been the focus of research in disciplines ranging from communication, neuroscience and social, developmental and consumer psychology.
With the methodologies and the level of analysis varying across the disciplines still a consensus is emerging.
Automatic, nonconscious mimicry exists in many forms and its strength and frequency are determined by a variety of social, cognitive, affective and motivational factors.
