Imitation as Default Social Behavior
We usually imitate—automatically—and not doing it is the exception.
From this paper, by Ap Dijksterhuis:
What does make humans special, though, is the wide range of behavior and even entire behavioral patterns that they imitate . . . we not only imitate the observable behavior of others (such as a facial expression or a gesture), but we adopt multiple, sometimes rather complex aspects of others' psychological functioning (see Dijksterhuis & Bargh, 2001). Humans, in a way, can take on the role of other humans . . .
I would like to argue that imitation, and especially imitation of complex behavioral patterns, constitutes the "social glue" that makes us successful social animals.
I will argue that imitation is of such importance because it can be conceived of as default social behavior. Imitation is not something we only occasionally engage in. Instead, we usually imitate—automatically—and not doing it is the exception.
