Mirroring

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A young boy mirrors the gesture of his grandmother Matera, Italy. Still unaware of despair, a small boy of Matera, Italy, unconsciously repeats the gesture of his... - NARA - 541739.tif
A young boy mirrors the gesture of his grandmother

Mirroring is the behavior in which one person subconsciously imitates the gesture, speech pattern, or attitude of another. [1] Mirroring often occurs in social situations, particularly in the company of close friends or family, often going unnoticed by both parties. The concept often affects other individuals' notions about the individual that is exhibiting mirroring behaviors, which can lead to the individual building rapport with others.

Contents

Mirroring is distinct from conscious imitation under the premise that while the latter is a conscious, typically overt effort to copy another person, mirroring is unconsciously done during the act and often goes unnoticed. [2] It has also been described as the chameleon effect. [1]

The display of mirroring often begins as early as infancy, as babies begin to mimic individuals around them and establish connections with particular body movements. [3] The ability to mimic another person's actions allows the infant to establish a sense of empathy and thus begin to understand another person's emotions. The infant continues to establish connections with other individual's emotions and subsequently mirror their movements.

Mirroring can establish rapport with the individual who is being mirrored, as the similarities in nonverbal gestures allow the individual to feel more connected with the person exhibiting the mirrored behavior. [4] As the two individuals in the situation display similar nonverbal gestures, they may believe that they share similar attitudes and ideas as well. Mirror neurons react to and cause these movements, allowing the individuals to feel a greater sense of engagement and belonging within the situation.

Occurrence

Mirroring generally takes place unconsciously as individuals react with the situation. [1] Mirroring is common in conversation, as the listeners will typically smile or frown along with the speaker, as well as imitate body posture or attitude about the topic. Individuals may be more willing to empathize with and accept people whom they believe hold similar interests and beliefs, and thus mirroring the person with whom one is speaking may establish connections between the individuals involved.

Interviews

Additionally, mirroring may play a role in how well an individual fares in a job interview. [5] Within a study conducted by Word, Zanna and Cooper, interviewers were instructed to follow specific types of body language in different experimental conditions. In one condition, interviewers were instructed to demonstrate distant and uninterested body language (such as leaning away or avoiding eye contact), and in another condition, they were asked to demonstrate more welcoming body language (such as smiling and making eye contact). As a result, the individuals being interviewed began to mirror the actions of the interviewer, and thus the individuals in the condition with less friendly body language fared worse within the interview than did individuals in the friendly condition. The study demonstrates that the initial attitudes that an interviewer may have of the individual being interviewed may affect the performance of the interviewee due to mirroring.

Effects of lacking

Individuals with autism or other social difficulties may be less likely to exhibit mirroring, as they may be less unconsciously and consciously aware of the actions of others. [6] This factor may cause additional difficulties for the individuals, as without mirroring, establishing connections with other people may be more difficult. Additionally, other individuals may be less likely to build rapport with the person, as without mirroring the person may seem more dissimilar and less friendly. Individuals who are not unconsciously aware of the gesture may have difficulties in social situations, as they may be less able to understand another person's perspective without it being explicitly stated, and thus may not understand covert cues that are often used in the social world. It is possible for autistic individuals to deliberately learn and become aware of these cues. [7]

Examinations in humans

The use of noninvasive fMRI studies have shown that there is evidence of mirroring in humans similar to that found in monkeys in the inferior parietal lobe and part of the inferior frontal gyrus. [8] Humans show additional signs of mirroring in parts of the brain not observed to show mirroring properties in primates, such as the cerebellum. [9] Mirroring has also been shown to allow neurotypical children to understand what the intentions of an action are before seeing the entire sequence. [10] Because of this, a child can see someone pick up food with the intention to eat and fire all necessary motor chains needed for them to pick up their own food and go through the motions of eating it as well. It has been shown that children with autism lack this motor chain reaction and are thought to use other senses, such as visual or somatosensory, to accomplish similar tasks. [11]

Development

In infant-parent interactions, mirroring consists of the parent imitating the infant's expressions while vocalizing the emotion implied by the expression. [12] This imitation helps the infant to associate the emotion with their expression, as well as feel validated in their own emotions as the parent shows approval through imitation. Studies have demonstrated that mirroring is an important part of child and infant development. According to Kohut's theories of self-psychology, individuals need a sense of validation and belonging in order to establish their concepts of self. [13] When parents mirror their infants, the action may help the child develop a greater sense of self-awareness and self-control, as they can see their emotions within their parent's faces. Additionally, infants may learn and experience new emotions, facial expressions, and gestures by mirroring expressions that their parents utilize. The process of mirroring may help infants establish connections of expressions to emotions and thus promote social communication later in life. Infants also learn to feel secure and valid in their own emotions through mirroring, as the parent's imitation of their emotions may help the child recognize their own thoughts and feelings more readily.

Self-concept

Mirroring has been shown to play a critical role in the development of an infant's notion of self. [6] The importance of mirroring suggests that infants primarily gather their social skills from their parents, and thus a household that lacks mirroring may inhibit the child's social development. Without mirroring, it may be difficult for the child to relate their emotions to socially learned expressions and thus have a difficult experience in expressing their own emotions.

Empathy

The inability to properly mirror other individuals may strain the child's social relationships later in life. [14] This strain may exist because others may feel more distant from the child due to a lack of rapport, or because the child may have a difficult time feeling empathy for others without mirroring. Mirroring helps to facilitate empathy, as individuals more readily experience other people's emotions through mimicking posture and gestures. Mirroring also allows individuals to subjectively feel the pain of others when viewing injuries. [15] This empathy may help individuals create lasting relationships and thus excel in social situations. The action of mirroring allows individuals to believe they are more similar to another person, and perceived similarity can be the basis for creating a relationship.

Rapport

Rapport may be an important part of social life, as establishing rapport with an individual is generally the initial route to becoming friends or acquaintances with another person. [4] Mirroring can help establish rapport, as exhibiting similar actions, attitudes, and speech patterns as another person may lead them to believe that one is more similar to them and thus more likely to be a friend. Individuals may believe that because one replicates the individual's gestures, that one may hold similar beliefs and attitudes as the individual. Mirroring may be more pervasive in close friendships or romantic relationships, as the individuals regard each other highly and thus wish to emulate or appease them. Additionally, individuals who are friends may have more similarities than two strangers, and thus may be more likely to exhibit similar body language regardless of mirroring.

The activation of mirror neurons takes place within the individual who begins to mirror another's movements and allows them a greater connection and understanding with the individual who they are mirroring, as well as allowing the individual who is being mirrored to feel a stronger connection with the other individual. [16]

Power dynamics

Additionally, individuals are likely to mirror the person of higher status or power within the situation or when they feel physical attraction to the other person. [17] [18] Mirroring individuals of higher power may create an illusion of higher status, or create rapport with the individual in power, thus allowing the person to gain favor with the individual in power. This mechanism may be helpful for individuals in situations where they are in a position of bargaining with an individual who possesses more power, as the rapport that mirroring creates may help to persuade the higher status individual to help the person of lower status. These situations include job interviews, other work situations such as requesting promotions, parent-child interactions and asking professors for favors. Each of these situations involves one party who is in a less powerful position for bargaining and another party who has the ability to fulfill the person of lower status's needs but may not necessarily wish to. Thus, mirroring can be a useful tool for individuals of lower status in order to persuade the other party to provide goods or privileges for the lower status party.

See also

Related Research Articles

A facial expression is one or more motions or positions of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. According to one set of controversial theories, these movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information between humans, but they also occur in most other mammals and some other animal species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Empathy</span> Capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing

Empathy is generally described as the ability to take on another's perspective, to understand, feel, and possibly share and respond to their experience. There are more definitions of empathy that include but is not limited to social, cognitive, and emotional processes primarily concerned with understanding others. Often times, empathy is considered to be a broad term, and broken down into more specific concepts and types that include cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, somatic empathy, and spiritual empathy.

Rapport is a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned are "in sync" with each other, understand each other's feelings or ideas, and communicate smoothly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Body language</span> Type of nonverbal communication

Body language is a type of communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. The term body language is usually applied in regard to people but may also be applied to animals. The study of body language is also known as kinesics. Although body language is an important part of communication, most of it happens without conscious awareness.

In psychology, theory of mind refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them. A theory of mind includes the knowledge that others' beliefs, desires, intentions, emotions, and thoughts may be different from one's own. Possessing a functional theory of mind is crucial for success in everyday human social interactions. People utilize a theory of mind when analyzing, judging, and inferring others' behaviors. The discovery and development of theory of mind primarily came from studies done with animals and infants. Factors including drug and alcohol consumption, language development, cognitive delays, age, and culture can affect a person's capacity to display theory of mind. Having a theory of mind is similar to but not identical with having the capacity for empathy or sympathy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microexpression</span> Innate result of voluntary, involuntary, and conflicting emotional responses

A microexpression is a facial expression that only lasts for a short moment. It is the innate result of a voluntary and an involuntary emotional response occurring simultaneously and conflicting with one another, and occurs when the amygdala responds appropriately to the stimuli that the individual experiences and the individual wishes to conceal this specific emotion. This results in the individual very briefly displaying their true emotions followed by a false emotional reaction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonverbal communication</span> Interpersonal communication through wordless (mostly visual) cues

Nonverbal communication (NVC) is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact (oculesics), body language (kinesics), social distance (proxemics), touch (haptics), voice (paralanguage), physical environments/appearance, and use of objects. When communicating, we utilize nonverbal channels as means to convey different messages or signals, whereas others can interpret these message. The study of nonverbal communication started in 1872 with the publication of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin. Darwin began to study nonverbal communication as he noticed the interactions between animals such as lions, tigers, dogs etc. and realized they also communicated by gestures and expressions. For the first time, nonverbal communication was studied and its relevance questioned. Today, scholars argue that nonverbal communication can convey more meaning than verbal communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imitation</span> Behaviour in which an individual observes and replicates anothers behaviour

Imitation is a behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's behavior. Imitation is also a form of that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our culture. It allows for the transfer of information between individuals and down generations without the need for genetic inheritance." The word imitation can be applied in many contexts, ranging from animal training to politics. The term generally refers to conscious behavior; subconscious imitation is termed mirroring.

Sympathy is the perception of, understanding of, and reaction to the distress or need of another life form.

A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an organism acts and when the organism observes the same action performed by another. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. Mirror neurons are not always physiologically distinct from other types of neurons in the brain; their main differentiating factor is their response patterns. By this definition, such neurons have been directly observed in humans and primate species, and in birds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social behavior</span> Behavior among two or more organisms within the same species

Social behavior is behavior among two or more organisms within the same species, and encompasses any behavior in which one member affects the other. This is due to an interaction among those members. Social behavior can be seen as similar to an exchange of goods, with the expectation that when you give, you will receive the same. This behavior can be affected by both the qualities of the individual and the environmental (situational) factors. Therefore, social behavior arises as a result of an interaction between the two—the organism and its environment. This means that, in regards to humans, social behavior can be determined by both the individual characteristics of the person, and the situation they are in.

Emotional contagion is a form of social contagion that involves the spontaneous spread of emotions and related behaviors. Such emotional convergence can happen from one person to another, or in a larger group. Emotions can be shared across individuals in many ways, both implicitly or explicitly. For instance, conscious reasoning, analysis, and imagination have all been found to contribute to the phenomenon. The behaviour has been found in humans, other primates, dogs, and chickens.

Display rules are a social group or culture's informal norms that distinguish how one should express themselves. They function as a way to maintain the social order of a given culture, creating an expected standard of behaviour to guide people in their interactions. Display rules can help to decrease situational ambiguity, help individuals to be accepted by their social groups, and can help groups to increase their group efficacy. They can be described as culturally prescribed rules that people learn early on in their lives by interactions and socializations with other people. Members of a social group learn these cultural standards at a young age which determine when one would express certain emotions, where and to what extent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Posture (psychology)</span> Aspect of nonverbal communication

In humans, posture can provide a significant amount of important information through nonverbal communication. Psychological studies have also demonstrated the effects of body posture on emotions. This research can be traced back to Charles Darwin's studies of emotion and movement in humans and animals. Currently, many studies have shown that certain patterns of body movements are indicative of specific emotions. Researchers studied sign language and found that even non-sign language users can determine emotions from only hand movements. Another example is the fact that anger is characterized by forward whole body movement. The theories that guide research in this field are the self-validation or perception theory and the embodied emotion theory.

Moral development focuses on the emergence, change, and understanding of morality from infancy through adulthood. The theory states that morality develops across a lifespan in a variety of ways and is influenced by an individual's experiences and behavior when faced with moral issues through different periods of physical and cognitive development. Morality concerns an individual's reforming sense of what is right and wrong; it is for this reason that young children have different moral judgment and character than that of a grown adult. Morality in itself is often a synonym for "rightness" or "goodness." It also refers to a specific code of conduct that is derived from one's culture, religion, or personal philosophy that guides one's actions, behaviors, and thoughts.

Social cues are verbal or non-verbal signals expressed through the face, body, voice, motion and guide conversations as well as other social interactions by influencing our impressions of and responses to others. These percepts are important communicative tools as they convey important social and contextual information and therefore facilitate social understanding.

Social Mirror Theory (SMT) states that people are not capable of self-reflection without taking into consideration a peer's interpretation of the experience. In other words, people define and resolve their internal musings through other's viewpoint. SMT's background is derived from the 1800s from concepts related to the study of public opinion and social interaction by Wilhelm Dilthey, the German philosopher and sociologist.

The study of the relationship between gender and emotional expression is the study of the differences between men and women in behavior that expresses emotions. These differences in emotional expression may be primarily due to cultural expectations of femininity and masculinity.

Social emotional development represents a specific domain of child development. It is a gradual, integrative process through which children acquire the capacity to understand, experience, express, and manage emotions and to develop meaningful relationships with others. As such, social emotional development encompasses a large range of skills and constructs, including, but not limited to: self-awareness, joint attention, play, theory of mind, self-esteem, emotion regulation, friendships, and identity development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motor mimicry</span> Neurological phenomenon

Motor mimicry is a common neurological phenomenon where a person reacts to an event happening to someone else. Examples of motor mimicry include wincing at someone else's injury or ducking when someone else does. Motor mimicry can also have more social and emotional manifestations, like unconsciously matching a peer's posture or speech patterns.

References

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  2. ↑ Vartanov, A. V.; Izbasarova, S. A.; Neroznikova, Y. M.; Artamonov, I. M.; Artamonova, Y. N.; Vartanova, I. I. (2023). "The effect of psychological mirroring in telecommunicative dialogue". Cognitive Systems Research. 80: 110–117. doi:10.1016/j.cogsys.2023.02.008.
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  5. ↑ Word, C. O.; Zanna, M. P.; Cooper, J. (1974). "The nonverbal mediation of self-fulfilling prophecies in interracial interaction". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 10 (2): 109–120. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(74)90059-6.
  6. 1 2 Meltzoff, A. (1990). Foundations for developing a concept of self: The role of imitation in relating self to other and the value of social mirroring, social modeling, and self-practice in infancy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. pp. 139–164. APA 1991-97339-006.
  7. ↑ Sedgewick, Felicity (2022). Autism and masking : how and why people do It, and the impact it can have. London. ISBN   9781787755802.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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  9. ↑ Molenberghs, P.; Cunnington, R.; Mattingley, J. B. (2012). "Brain regions with mirror properties: A meta-analysis of 125 human fMRI studies" (PDF). Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 36 (1): 341–9. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.07.004. PMID   21782846. S2CID   37871374.
  10. ↑ Rizzolatti, G.; Fabbri-Destro, M. (2008). "The mirror system and its role in social cognition". Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 18 (2): 179–84. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2008.08.001. PMID   18706501. S2CID   206950104.
  11. ↑ Cattaneo, Luigi; Fabbri-Destro, Maddalena; Boria, Sonia; Pieraccini, Cinzia; Monti, Annalisa; Cossu, Giuseppe; Rizzolatti, Giacomo (26 October 2007). "Impairment of actions chains in autism and its possible role in intention understanding". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104 (45): 17825–17830. Bibcode:2007PNAS..10417825C. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0706273104 . PMC   2077067 . PMID   17965234.
  12. ↑ Gergely, G.; Watson, J. S. (1996). "The social biofeedback theory of parental affect-mirroring: The development of emotional self-awareness and self-control in infancy". The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. 77 (6): 1181–212. PMID   9119582.
  13. ↑ Kohut, H. (1985). Self Psychology and the Humanities . New York & London: W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN   9780393700008.
  14. ↑ Jermann, P.; Soller, A.; Muehlenbrock, M. (2001). From mirroring to guiding: A review of the state of art technology for supporting collaborative learning (PDF). Maastricht, Netherlands: European Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning. pp. 324–331.
  15. ↑ Kupfer, Tom R. (October 2018). "Why are injuries disgusting? Comparing pathogen avoidance and empathy accounts". Emotion. 18 (7): 959–970. doi:10.1037/emo0000395. PMID   29389204. S2CID   24843568.
  16. ↑ Endedijk, H.M.; Meyer, M.; Bekkering, H.; Cillessen, A.H.N.; Hunnius, S. (1 January 2017). "Neural mirroring and social interaction: Motor system involvement during action observation relates to early peer cooperation". Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 24: 33–41. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2017.01.001. ISSN   1878-9293. PMC   6987761 . PMID   28119184.
  17. ↑ Mintz, S. (1985). Sweetness and Power. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
  18. ↑ Talley, L.; Temple, S. (2015). "How Leaders Influence Followers Through the Use of Nonverbal Communication". Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 36 (1): 69–80. doi:10.1108/lodj-07-2013-0107. Archived from the original on 2015-02-25.
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