Health & Fitness - If people feel excluded, they mimic others

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If people feel excluded, they mimic others

MADISON, N.J. (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say the less people feel they belong, the more likely they are to try to fit in by using mimicry.

Psychologists Jessica Lakin of Drew University in Madison, N.J.;Tanya Chartrand of Duke University in Durham, N.C., and Robert Arkin of The Ohio State University in Columbus, conducted several experiments.

The researchers predicted that if the female participants were ostracized by females and later interacted with a female confederate, then they would mimic the confederate more than other participants -- and they were right.

"People whose need to belong is threatened do not necessarily mimic the first person they see; they take into account aspects of the situation and act accordingly, all unconsciously," the authors said in a statement. "Conceptualized this way, automatic mimicry is certainly is a useful addition to the human behavioral repertoire."

The findings, entitled "I Am Too Just Like You: Nonconscious Mimicry as an Automatic Behavioral Response to Social Exclusion," is published in Psychological Science.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 08/12/2008

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Posted Comments:

08-18-2008 18:29

Melody Yaneza wrote:

Weird way of putting it

People do not actually feel excluded but they want to belong or be with the "in" crowd which explains idolatry of popular celebrities where ordinary people dress like and try to act like or speak like the people they emulate. But for others, mimickry is a profession such as the impersonators in Las Vegas.