Social group membership does not modulate automatic imitation in a contrastive multi-agent paradigm
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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in: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Jahrgang 74, Nr. 4, 04.2021, S. 746-759.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Social group membership does not modulate automatic imitation in a contrastive multi-agent paradigm
AU - De Souter, Laura
AU - Braem, Senne
AU - Genschow, Oliver
AU - Brass, Marcel
AU - Cracco, Emiel
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © Experimental Psychology Society 2021.
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - A key prediction of motivational theories of automatic imitation is that people imitate in-group over out-group members. However, research on this topic has provided mixed results. Here, we investigate the possibility that social group modulations emerge only when people can directly compare in- and out-group. To this end, we conducted three experiments in which we measured automatic imitation of two simultaneously shown hands: one in-group and one out-group hand. Our general hypothesis was that the in-group hand would be imitated more than the out-group hand. However, even though both explicit and implicit manipulation checks showed that we succeeded in manipulating participants’ feelings of group membership, we did not find support for the predicted influence of group membership on automatic imitation. In contrast to motivational theories, this suggests that group membership does not influence who we do or do not imitate, not even in a contrastive multi-agent paradigm.
AB - A key prediction of motivational theories of automatic imitation is that people imitate in-group over out-group members. However, research on this topic has provided mixed results. Here, we investigate the possibility that social group modulations emerge only when people can directly compare in- and out-group. To this end, we conducted three experiments in which we measured automatic imitation of two simultaneously shown hands: one in-group and one out-group hand. Our general hypothesis was that the in-group hand would be imitated more than the out-group hand. However, even though both explicit and implicit manipulation checks showed that we succeeded in manipulating participants’ feelings of group membership, we did not find support for the predicted influence of group membership on automatic imitation. In contrast to motivational theories, this suggests that group membership does not influence who we do or do not imitate, not even in a contrastive multi-agent paradigm.
KW - Automatic imitation
KW - in-group
KW - multiple agents
KW - out-group
KW - Business psychology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104226514&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1747021820986528
DO - 10.1177/1747021820986528
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 33427078
AN - SCOPUS:85104226514
VL - 74
SP - 746
EP - 759
JO - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
JF - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
SN - 1747-0218
IS - 4
ER -