Mimicry Signals Affiliation, but Why?

The ability of mimicry to signal affiliation to, and elicit affiliation from, the mimicked person has generated great interest, but no definitive account of these phenomena has emerged. While affiliation is often cited as the driving force behind mimicry, I argue that mimicry results from an imitative learning process that helps to produce the best bodily (including emotional) responses to social stimuli and situations by reproducing and learning bodily and emotional reactions of models. The influential “feelings as information” perspective states that we form evaluations of events and objects based on coincident somatic experiences (feelings). Mimicry and contagion effects, which imply “shared feelings” can therefore influence attitudes and evaluations. Thus, mimicry of the wrong person may be costly. This perspective explains why mimicry towards outgroup members is maladaptive, and why responding positively to mimicry is adaptive for models. Connections with related phenomenon, and seemingly strategic mimicry behavior are also discussed.