Social group membership does not modulate automatic imitation in a contrastive multi-agent paradigm

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

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.

Original languageEnglish
JournalQuarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Volume74
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)746-759
Number of pages14
ISSN1747-0218
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 04.2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Experimental Psychology Society 2021.

DOI

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Lukas Stolz

Publications

  1. Intelligence assessment with computer simulations
  2. Capitalizing on natural language processing (NLP) to automate the evaluation of coach implementation fidelity in guided digital cognitive-behavioral therapy (GdCBT)
  3. Rapid Prototyping of a Mechatronic Engine Valve Controller for IC Engines
  4. Constitutions, Democratic Self-Determination and the Institutional Empowerment of Future Generations: Mitigating an Aporia
  5. Ticio Escobar
  6. Resolving conflicts between people and over time in the transformation toward sustainability
  7. Lyapunov stability analysis to set up a saturating PI controller with anti-windup for a mass flow system
  8. U-model-based dynamic inversion control for quadrotor UAV systems
  9. Systematic risk behavior in cyclical industries
  10. Bridging scenario planning and backcasting
  11. On the Existence of Digital Objects
  12. Release of monomers from four different composite materials after halogen and LED curing
  13. System and action theory
  14. Audio-Hacks
  15. Internet: Impact and Potential for Learning and Instruction
  16. Modeling and Simulation of Electrochemical Cells under Applied Voltage
  17. Controlling a Bank Model Economy by Sliding Mode Control with Help of Kalman Filter
  18. Does ESG performance have an impact on financial performance?
  19. An empirical investigation of experiences and the link between a servicedominant logic mindset, competitive advantage, and performance of nonprofit organizations
  20. How and Why Different Forms of Expertise Moderate Anchor Precision in Price Decisions
  21. An empirical note on commuting distance and sleep during workweek and weekend
  22. Dietary patterns of children on three indigenous societies
  23. Predictive mapping of plant species and communities using GIS and Landsat data in a southern Mongolian mountain range
  24. Der FFB-Server mit Microsoft Windows Server 2003
  25. Recurring patterns and blueprints of industrial symbioses as structural units for an it tool
  26. Shifts in plant functional trait dynamics in relation to soil microbiome in modern and wild barley
  27. Putting Architecture in its Social Space: the Fields and Skills of Planning Maastricht
  28. Detection of oscillations with application in the pantograph control
  29. Revegetation in agricultural areas: the development of structural complexity and floristic diversity