Mimicry and Confidence: New Insights into the Positive (and Negative) Consequences of Behavioral Mimicry

模仿与自信：对行为模仿的积极（和消极）后果的新见解

• 批准号: 1362900
• 负责人: Kenneth DeMarree
• 金额: $ 8.01万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Buffalo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-08-15 至 2015-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1362900&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Mimicry; Confidence; New; Insights; into

Mimicry occurs when one person non-consciously mirrors the nonverbal behavior of another person. Being mimicked generally increases one's willingness to help the mimicker and increases the likelihood of being persuaded by the mimicker. Past work has suggested that the reason mimicry promotes these outcomes is because of (a) shifts in the mimicked person's self-concepts or (b) increases in the mimicked person's liking for the mimicker. This research will test a different potential reason why mimicry influences helping and persuasion. Specifically, the proposed studies will test the idea that being mimicked increases one's confidence in one's own thoughts. This increased confidence should magnify the impact of one's current thoughts on judgment and behavior. Unlike previous accounts of mimicry -- which predict nearly universal prosocial outcomes of being mimicked -- the proposed idea that mimicry increases confidence predicts that when a person's thoughts happen to be antisocial (e.g., competitive) mimicry will lead to more antisocial behavior rather than more helping. The proposed research will challenge existing theoretical perspectives on mimicry by demonstrating that increased confidence stemming from mimicry can produce effects opposite to those previously documented. In most interactions, positive thoughts predominate, so "main effect" theories (e.g., increased liking) and the confidence perspective make the same predictions. However, a unique prediction of this proposal is that if antisocial thoughts predominate, the confidence resulting from being mimicked will increase antisocial behavior. That is, mimicry will increase the impact of a person's currently accessible thoughts, regardless of whether the thoughts are positive ("help him," "believe her") or negative ("defeat him," "disagree with her"). In short, the PI proposes a new explanation for the effects of mimicry, one that explains current findings and identifies when opposite findings should follow from being mimicked.Knowing the precise reasons why mimicry influence persuasion and helping behavior is important not only because it contributes to theories of helping and persuasion but also because it has a wide range of applications -- especially in interpersonal settings. For example, mimicry is relevant to clinical psychology, health communication, human-computer interaction, management, and marketing. This research has great potential to inform theory, training, and practice in these fields. For example this work can tell us when a therapist (or "social" robot) who mimics a client is most likely to facilitate the desired outcomes versus when mimicry might "backfire." The proposed research will also be disseminated widely, as the investigators will actively seek opportunities to present this research at major conferences and to publish findings in top tier journals in psychology. Finally, this research will promote science education and training by involving a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students in all phases of the research process.

当一个人无意地反映另一个人的非语言行为时，就会发生模仿。被模仿通常会增加一个人的意愿，以帮助模仿者，并增加了被模仿者说服的可能性。 过去的工作表明，模仿促进这些结果的原因是因为（a）模仿者的自我概念的转变，或者（b）在模仿者对模仿者的喜好中增加。这项研究将检验模仿影响和说服力的不同潜在原因。具体而言，拟议的研究将测试以下观点，即模仿会增加人们对自己的思想的信心。 这种增强的信心应该扩大当前思想对判断和行为的影响。与以前关于模仿的说法（预测模仿的几乎普遍的亲社会结果）不同，拟议的想法是，模仿的想法会增加信心，而当一个人的思想恰好是反社会的（例如，竞争性的）时，模仿将导致更多的反社会行为，而不是更多的帮助。拟议的研究将通过证明模仿产生的置信度与先前记录的效果相反，从而挑战对模仿的现有理论观点。在大多数相互作用中，积极思想占主导地位，因此“主要效应”理论（例如，喜欢增加）和置信度的观点可以做出相同的预测。但是，该提议的独特预测是，如果反社会思想占主导地位，那么模仿而产生的信心将增加反社会行为。也就是说，模仿将增加一个人当前可访问的思想的影响，无论思想是积极的（“帮助他”，“相信她”）或负面的（“击败他”，“与她不同意”）。简而言之，PI提出了一种对模仿影响的新解释，该解释解释了当前的发现并确定相反的发现应遵循模仿而遵循的结果。确切的原因是，模仿影响说服力和帮助行为的确切原因不仅重要，这不仅是为帮助和说服力的理论而有助于应用程序范围广泛，而且因为它具有广泛的范围 - 尤其是在插座上 - 彼此的互动范围。例如，模仿与临床心理学，健康交流，人类计算机互动，管理和营销有关。 这项研究具有很大的潜力，可以在这些领域为理论，培训和实践提供信息。例如，这项工作可以告诉我们何时模拟客户的治疗师（或“社交”机器人）何时最有可能促进所需的结果，而不是模仿“适得其反”。 拟议的研究也将被广泛传播，因为研究人员将积极寻求机会在主要会议上介绍这项研究，并在心理学的顶级期刊上发表研究结果。最后，这项研究将通过参与研究过程各个阶段的各种本科生和研究生来促进科学教育和培训。