Don't copycat an unpopular boss's behavior, study reminds

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but mindless mimicry can also make you look like a jerk. That’s the gist of a new study on empathetic body language that will appear in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science.

In social situations, people tend to mirror one another as an unconscious show of rapport. Find yourself on a successful first date, for example, and you will often lean in at the same times during conversation. And though most mirroring is done unintentionally, some adopt it as a subtle psychological strategy for closing sales and acing big job interviews.  

That said, clueless copycatting may be costly. Piotr Winkielman and Liam Kavanagh of the University of California San Diego psychology department and Christopher Suhler and Patricia Churchland of the school’s philosophy department examined ways in which mimicking the wrong person suggests low social IQ. 

“Often imitation is good,” Winkielman said. “We pick up good behavior from others. If you interact with someone and imitate them, there are positive things that come from it.”

But “mirroring of unfriendly or dismissive models can be costly or harm your reputation,” he said. For example, “if someone sees you kissing up to the obnoxious boss, they will think less of you. Mimicry is a form of kissing up, or it’s a form of communicating that you like this person or you want to be like this person.”

Participants in the study were asked to watch video of several staged interviews. In some clips, the interviewer was cordial, while in others the same interviewer was unfriendly or condescending. The interviewee alternated between mirroring mannerisms -- crossing legs, chin touching -- and having less responsive body language. 

After watching the videos, participants were asked to evaluate the interviewee on competence, likability and trustworthiness. And though they were not asked to specifically identify mimicry, participants deemed the interviewee less competent when imitating an unfriendly questioner. 

“We were surprised that the negative aspect of aligning yourself with this obnoxious model overrode any positive impressions,” Winkielman said. “Even if you do these innocent gestures that make you seem more like someone who is unfriendly, other people will think of you as incompetent or think less of you.”

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