I was talking to a friend of mine who happens to have a Master's in psychology about mirroring and how it can be an indicator of good rapport. Pick up artists often claim that if you and a girl start mirroring each other's postures, for example, it shows a great level of affinity and they say it is a sign she fancies you; and I recall hearing sellers making similar statements - though, of course, they just want to look trustworthy rather than bonkworthy, but that's beside the point.

My friend had never heard of it before, and said it could be because this is not his field of expertise within psychology, and asked me for some references. Well, much to my surprise, this has been a hard task. I found some articles in the peer-reviewed literature that do seem to defend this thesis (such as "The Nature of Rapport and Its Nonverbal Correlates", The Chameleon Effect as a Social Glue and The Courtship Dance: Patterns of Synchronisation in Opposite-Sex Encounters") and loads of dodgy NLP material that is as credible as geocentricism. And that made me wary about the whole thing - the "linguistic" bit in "neurolinguistic programming" is pure bollocketry, as far as I can tell, and it makes me wonder if those studies are as reliable as I think they are.

Is this a problem studied in any mainstream research programme in psychology? Or is it one of those things greatly exaggerated by laymen and that make experts cringe? I'm yet to read those articles but, as an outsider, I thought I'd first ask psychology students and Boomers for some guidance on this issue.

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Hahaha, I was talking about this with someone not too long, actually. I think it's best understood in terms of courting behaviour (er wait, I see you already said that...)

But yeah. I had the suspicion that my buddy's room-mate had a crush on me - because of the way he always mirrored me when we were in the same room together, and the way he always positioned himself in relation to me.


Anyway, I see that you're looking for credible studies about this behaviour. I have to go do some shit for a couple hours, but I think I might be able to dig some stuff up for you. I'm sure I've seen something somewhere in my psych studies.

quote:

Originally posted by jennypie But yeah. I had the suspicion that my buddy's room-mate had a crush on me - because of the way he always mirrored me when we were in the same room together, and the way he always positioned himself in relation to me.

Hah, I was talking to him about the very same thing! Though in my case I'm pretty sure it is the case, and it isn't really something I want to happen because of the obvious.

Though it didn't happen with your buddy's room-mate, of course

quote:

Originally posted by jennypie Anyway, I see that you're looking for credible studies about this behaviour. I have to go do some shit for a couple hours, but I think I might be able to dig some stuff up for you. I'm sure I've seen something somewhere in my psych studies.

Thanks!

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I subconsciously mirror the way people talk when I'm around them. Sometimes I become aware of it and concentrate on how they sound and not what they're actually saying. It's weird, but in the end I can sound like I'm from almost any country.

/B.S. in pysch here

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social psychology is the least "scientific" of all the diffrnt branches

/2cents

It's a commonly used sales trick. I do it all the time and it works.

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quote:

Originally posted by Fledz It's a commonly used sales trick. I do it all the time and it works.

Yup. I've used it, too, with some effect but I think it's been discredited as a reliable indicator - meaning that if someone is mirroring you, it doesn't mean they're necessarily amenable to your suggestions. I really wish I knew where I read that, though.

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quote:

Originally posted by Fledz It's a commonly used sales trick. I do it all the time and it works.

If I had a 7 foot tall Slav abrasively mirror my every move, I don't think I could ever muster up the courage to say no either

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quote:

Originally posted by Flec social psychology is the least "scientific" of all the diffrnt branches /2cents

No, it's just the most difficult to discern because it involves more complex interactions than say simply testing out neural wiring for sight or finding new neurotransmitters.

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quote:

Originally posted by Jake Benson No, it's just the most difficult to discern because it involves more complex interactions than say simply testing out neural wiring for sight or finding new neurotransmitters.

Indeed, I've been reading Social Cognition by Susan Fiske and it look rigorous enough to me, science wise.

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Journal of Applied Psychology
Issue: Volume 94(1), January 2009, p 216–223
Copyright: © 2009 by the American Psychological Association
Publication Type: [Research Reports]
DOI: 10.1037/a0012829


Behavioral mirroring is a specific type of nonverbal interpersonal dynamic where people unknowingly adjust the timing and content of the physical movements in a manner that mirrors the behaviors exhibited by their interaction partner (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999; La France, 1982). For example, when a colleague leans forward and places her hands on a table in a manner that unintentionally reflects the posture and hand movements of her interaction partner, she is engaging in behavioral mirroring. As a nonconscious interpersonal dynamic, behavioral mirroring is distinct from more conscious and deliberate forms of mimicry, for example, when a salesperson strategically mirrors a potential customer to influence a sale.


Individuals often use behavioral mirroring to infer rapport and empathy in their social interactions (Lakin, Jefferis, Cheng, & Chartrand, 2003; Tickle-Degnen & Rosenthal, 1987). A high level of behavioral mirroring generally is experienced as a reassuring signal that the encounter is proceeding well; a low level is experienced negatively, interpreted as a lack of rapport or rejection. Thus, people feel more comfortable and perceive their interactions more positively when they are subtly mirrored by an interaction partner than when they are not (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999).


For behavioral mirroring effects to occur, however, a person must notice and process the nonverbal signals that an interaction partner exhibits (Sanchez-Burks, 2002). Thus, to be influenced by the degree of behavioral mirroring in a face-to-face interaction requires a certain level of sensitivity to interpersonal cues. Yet, there is growing evidence that people's sensitivity to such cues often varies across cultural groups and social contexts (for a review, see Earley, 1997). This observation raises the question of how cultural group membership might moderate the effect of behavioral mirroring on an individual's experience of and performance in an intercultural workplace interaction. In this article, we explore how this interactive relationship between culture and mirroring might operate among two cultural groups known to differ in their sensitivity to interpersonal cues in work settings: U.S. Latinos and U.S. Anglos.

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It isn't a dismissed theory by any means, but it also isn't a theory of any particular focus, or at least not in the psychology courses I have taken thus far.

When I search my Psychology database, a lot of results pop up, so it appears to be a heavily discussed/researched theory.