title: Group Dynamics in Automatic Imitation.
abstract: Imitation-matching the configural body movements of another individual-plays a crucial part in social interaction. We investigated whether automatic imitation is not only influenced by who we imitate (ingroup vs. outgroup member) but also by the nature of an expected interaction situation (competitive vs. cooperative). In line with assumptions from Social Identity Theory), we predicted that both social group membership and the expected situation impact on the level of automatic imitation. We adopted a 2 (group membership target: ingroup, outgroup) x 2 (situation: cooperative, competitive) design. The dependent variable was the degree to which participants imitated the target in a reaction time automatic imitation task. 99 female students from two British Universities participated. We found a significant two-way interaction on the imitation effect. When interacting in expectation of cooperation, imitation was stronger for an ingroup target compared to an outgroup target. However, this was not the case in the competitive condition where imitation did not differ between ingroup and outgroup target. This demonstrates that the goal structure of an expected interaction will determine the extent to which intergroup relations influence imitation, supporting a social identity approach.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Ilka H
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9913-250X
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Gleibs
authors.affiliation: College of Health and Wellbeing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Geetha
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Catmur