Understanding the role of the ‘self’ in the social priming of mimicry
People have a tendency to unconsciously mimic other's actions. This mimicry has been regarded as a prosocial response which increases social affiliation. Previous research on social priming of mimicry demonstrated an assimilative relationship between mimicry and prosociality of the primed const...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Public Library of Science
2013
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2966/ |
| _version_ | 1848790919260667904 |
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| author | Wang, Yin Hamilton, Antonia F. de C. |
| author_facet | Wang, Yin Hamilton, Antonia F. de C. |
| author_sort | Wang, Yin |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | People have a tendency to unconsciously mimic other's actions. This mimicry has been regarded as a prosocial response which increases social affiliation. Previous research on social priming of mimicry demonstrated an assimilative relationship between mimicry and prosociality of the primed construct: prosocial primes elicit stronger mimicry whereas antisocial primes decrease mimicry. The present research extends these findings by showing that assimilative and contrasting prime-to-behavior effect can both happen on mimicry. Specifically, experiment 1 showed a robust contrast priming effect where priming antisocial behaviors induces stronger mimicry than priming prosocial behaviors. In experiment 2, we manipulated the self-relatedness of the pro/antisocial primes and further revealed that prosocial primes increase mimicry only when the social primes are self-related whereas antisocial primes increase mimicry only when the social primes are self-unrelated. In experiment 3, we used a novel cartoon movie paradigm to prime pro/antisocial behaviors and manipulated the perspective-taking when participants were watching these movies. Again, we found that prosocial primes increase mimicry only when participants took a first-person point of view whereas antisocial primes increase mimicry only when participants took a third-person point of view, which replicated the findings in experiment 2. We suggest that these three studies can be best explained by the active-self theory, which claims that the direction of prime-to-behavior effects depends on how primes are processed in relation to the ‘self’. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:20:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-2966 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:20:16Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-29662020-05-04T16:36:35Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2966/ Understanding the role of the ‘self’ in the social priming of mimicry Wang, Yin Hamilton, Antonia F. de C. People have a tendency to unconsciously mimic other's actions. This mimicry has been regarded as a prosocial response which increases social affiliation. Previous research on social priming of mimicry demonstrated an assimilative relationship between mimicry and prosociality of the primed construct: prosocial primes elicit stronger mimicry whereas antisocial primes decrease mimicry. The present research extends these findings by showing that assimilative and contrasting prime-to-behavior effect can both happen on mimicry. Specifically, experiment 1 showed a robust contrast priming effect where priming antisocial behaviors induces stronger mimicry than priming prosocial behaviors. In experiment 2, we manipulated the self-relatedness of the pro/antisocial primes and further revealed that prosocial primes increase mimicry only when the social primes are self-related whereas antisocial primes increase mimicry only when the social primes are self-unrelated. In experiment 3, we used a novel cartoon movie paradigm to prime pro/antisocial behaviors and manipulated the perspective-taking when participants were watching these movies. Again, we found that prosocial primes increase mimicry only when participants took a first-person point of view whereas antisocial primes increase mimicry only when participants took a third-person point of view, which replicated the findings in experiment 2. We suggest that these three studies can be best explained by the active-self theory, which claims that the direction of prime-to-behavior effects depends on how primes are processed in relation to the ‘self’. Public Library of Science 2013-04-02 Article PeerReviewed Wang, Yin and Hamilton, Antonia F. de C. (2013) Understanding the role of the ‘self’ in the social priming of mimicry. PLoS ONE, 8 (4). e60249/1-e60249/11. ISSN 1932-6203 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060249 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0060249 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0060249 |
| spellingShingle | Wang, Yin Hamilton, Antonia F. de C. Understanding the role of the ‘self’ in the social priming of mimicry |
| title | Understanding the role of the ‘self’ in the social priming of mimicry |
| title_full | Understanding the role of the ‘self’ in the social priming of mimicry |
| title_fullStr | Understanding the role of the ‘self’ in the social priming of mimicry |
| title_full_unstemmed | Understanding the role of the ‘self’ in the social priming of mimicry |
| title_short | Understanding the role of the ‘self’ in the social priming of mimicry |
| title_sort | understanding the role of the ‘self’ in the social priming of mimicry |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2966/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2966/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2966/ |