Group membership does not modulate automatic imitation
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In: Psychological Research, Vol. 86, No. 3, 01.04.2022, p. 780-791.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Group membership does not modulate automatic imitation
AU - Genschow, Oliver
AU - Westfal, Mareike
AU - Cracco, Emiel
AU - Crusius, Jan
N1 - Funding Information: Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. This work was supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG; Grant Number: 246329797). Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/4/1
Y1 - 2022/4/1
N2 - Individuals have the automatic tendency to imitate each other. A key prediction of different theories explaining automatic imitation is that individuals imitate in-group members more strongly than out-group members. However, the empirical basis for this prediction is rather inconclusive. Only a few experiments have investigated the influence of group membership using classic automatic imitation paradigms and these experiments led to mixed results. To put the group membership prediction to a critical test, we carried out six high-powered experiments (total N = 1538) in which we assessed imitation with the imitation-inhibition task and manipulated group membership in different ways. Evidence across all experiments indicates that group membership does not modulate automatic imitation. Moreover, we do not find support for the idea that feelings of affiliation or perceived similarity moderate the effect of group membership on automatic imitation. These results have important implications for theories explaining automatic imitation and contribute to the current discussion of whether automatic imitation can be socially modulated.
AB - Individuals have the automatic tendency to imitate each other. A key prediction of different theories explaining automatic imitation is that individuals imitate in-group members more strongly than out-group members. However, the empirical basis for this prediction is rather inconclusive. Only a few experiments have investigated the influence of group membership using classic automatic imitation paradigms and these experiments led to mixed results. To put the group membership prediction to a critical test, we carried out six high-powered experiments (total N = 1538) in which we assessed imitation with the imitation-inhibition task and manipulated group membership in different ways. Evidence across all experiments indicates that group membership does not modulate automatic imitation. Moreover, we do not find support for the idea that feelings of affiliation or perceived similarity moderate the effect of group membership on automatic imitation. These results have important implications for theories explaining automatic imitation and contribute to the current discussion of whether automatic imitation can be socially modulated.
KW - Business psychology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107477046&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/285ceabc-b6be-397d-8e00-ff3a5931064c/
U2 - 10.1007/s00426-021-01526-1
DO - 10.1007/s00426-021-01526-1
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 34109471
AN - SCOPUS:85107477046
VL - 86
SP - 780
EP - 791
JO - Psychological Research
JF - Psychological Research
SN - 0340-0727
IS - 3
ER -