Mimicking Your Way to Compliance – How Mirroring The Body Language Of Another Leads To Helping Behaviour
Jenny Galvao
According to research led by Nicola Guéguen of the University of Bretagne-Sud and his associates, when people mimics another, it makes the person being imitated more likely to help them out or comply with a specific request.
Through mimicry, we can actually increase helping behaviour from those whom we are mimicking. The similarity we convey when we mimic someone is thought to create positive liking feelings towards us. Essentially, when we mirror others, they evaluate us in a more positive light and therefore they will be more inclined to assist us when needed, as they see us as someone who would do the same for them.
In this experiment, the participants had conversations with confederate (whom they actually thought was just a fellow participant. The pair was instructed to discuss their opinions towards a particular piece of art. Half of the confederates were asked to mimic the nonverbal behaviour of the participants they were conversing with, and half were not.
After the ten-minute interaction, the participant and confederate were thanked by the experimenter and left the room. The confederate then handed the participant a long ten-page essay which they had ostensibly drafted themselves. They asked to participant to edit, offer some feedback, and otherwise critique it. Thus the real test was whether the participant would offer feedback or not.
The results showed that in most cases, the participants who had their nonverbals mimicked were more likely to comply with the request and help the confederate.
“Mimicry is a powerful technique to increase helping behaviour,” says Guéguen.
When participants were mimicked, versus not mimicked, they tended to be more compliant on a verbal helping request.
The takeaway message is simple; seeing someone exhibit the same emotions and movements that you are currently experiencing and portraying can make you more inclined to assist them. This may be because mirroring other people makes them feel like they are more similar to you or even that you and they are kindred spirits.
Perhaps there is some merit to the old cliché that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” This research shows that imitation of nonverbal behaviour can certainly increase your chances of getting somebody to comply with a request.
Image Credit: Anais Gómez-C
About the Author: Jenny Galvao is an undergraduate student at the University of Guelph studying psychology.
Resources
Guéguen, Nicolas; Martin, Angelique and Sebastien Meineri. Mimicry and Helping Behavior: An Evaluation of Mimicry on Explicit Helping Request. The Journal of Social Psychology. 2019. 51(1), 1–4