Automatic imitation: A meta-analysis
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In: Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 144, No. 5, 01.05.2018, p. 453-500.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Automatic imitation
T2 - A meta-analysis
AU - Cracco, Emiel
AU - Bardi, Lara
AU - Desmet, Charlotte
AU - Genschow, Oliver
AU - Rigoni, Davide
AU - Coster, Lize De
AU - Radkova, Ina
AU - Deschrijver, Eliane
AU - Brass, Marcel
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2018 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2018/5/1
Y1 - 2018/5/1
N2 - impeded by incompatible observed movements. In the past 15 years, automatic imitation has been studied to understand the relation between perception and action in social interaction. Although research on this topic started in cognitive science, interest quickly spread to related disciplines such as social psychology, clinical psychology, and neuroscience. However, important theoretical questions have remained unanswered. Therefore, in the present meta-analysis, we evaluated seven key questions on automatic imitation. The results, based on 161 studies containing 226 experiments, revealed an overall effect size of gz=0.95, 95% CI [0.88, 1.02]. Moderator analyses identified automatic imitation as a flexible, largely automatic process that is driven by movement and effector compatibility, but is also influenced by spatial compatibility. Automatic imitation was found to be stronger for forced choice tasks than for simple response tasks, for human agents than for nonhuman agents, and for goalless actions than for goal-directed actions. However, it was not modulated by more subtle factors such as animacy beliefs, motion profiles, or visual perspective. Finally, there was no evidence for a relation between automatic imitation and either empathy or autism. Among other things, these findings point toward actor-imitator similarity as a crucial modulator of automatic imitation and challenge the view that imitative tendencies are an indicator of social functioning. The current meta-analysis has important theoretical implications and sheds light on longstanding controversies in the literature on automatic imitation and related domains.
AB - impeded by incompatible observed movements. In the past 15 years, automatic imitation has been studied to understand the relation between perception and action in social interaction. Although research on this topic started in cognitive science, interest quickly spread to related disciplines such as social psychology, clinical psychology, and neuroscience. However, important theoretical questions have remained unanswered. Therefore, in the present meta-analysis, we evaluated seven key questions on automatic imitation. The results, based on 161 studies containing 226 experiments, revealed an overall effect size of gz=0.95, 95% CI [0.88, 1.02]. Moderator analyses identified automatic imitation as a flexible, largely automatic process that is driven by movement and effector compatibility, but is also influenced by spatial compatibility. Automatic imitation was found to be stronger for forced choice tasks than for simple response tasks, for human agents than for nonhuman agents, and for goalless actions than for goal-directed actions. However, it was not modulated by more subtle factors such as animacy beliefs, motion profiles, or visual perspective. Finally, there was no evidence for a relation between automatic imitation and either empathy or autism. Among other things, these findings point toward actor-imitator similarity as a crucial modulator of automatic imitation and challenge the view that imitative tendencies are an indicator of social functioning. The current meta-analysis has important theoretical implications and sheds light on longstanding controversies in the literature on automatic imitation and related domains.
KW - Automatic imitation
KW - Imitation
KW - Meta-analysis
KW - Mimicry
KW - Review
KW - Business psychology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042660481&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/bul0000143
DO - 10.1037/bul0000143
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 29517262
AN - SCOPUS:85042660481
VL - 144
SP - 453
EP - 500
JO - Psychological Bulletin
JF - Psychological Bulletin
SN - 0033-2909
IS - 5
ER -