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Automatic Imitation can be defined as the human tendency to copy actions performed by other people even when irrelevant to the present task. Automatic imitation first appears after birth and develops as humans’ age. The tendency to imitate others is frequently seen in social interaction and is seen as a way of establishing rapport and bonds between human beings

The phenomenon has been observed throughout history. For instance, Charles Darwin, noted observers of leaping matches moved their own feet in a way similar to the competitors, as if they were competing themselves. It has also been observed in children’s games throughout history, including a Victorian parlour game. An adult either instructed the children to hold or let go of a table cloth while performing the compatible or incompatible action. However, experimental evidence has only been collected since the end of the twentieth century.

Background Research
Such behaviours are as a result of stimulus response compatibility, in which the ‘naturalness’ of the association between the stimulus (observed action) and response (performed action). Past research suggests action observation involves corresponding motor activation in the brain. Prior to the start of the twenty-first century, very few studies tried to investigate how action observation affects performance. Brass, Bekkering, Woklschlager and Prinz were some of the first researchers to do so. In order to achieve this, they tested reaction times when participants watched a video clip of a hand lifting either the index or middle finger contrasted with symbolic cues, either a number one for the index finger or number 2 for the middle finger. The participants were asked to either match their responses to the symbolic cues or the imitative cues. It was theorised there would be faster reaction times for the imitative cues due to the irrelevant congruent movement facilitating response activation. The results largely reflected this hypothesis as participants reacted quicker when shown the imitative cues as opposed to the symbolic cues. It was also found that during the symbolic cue conditions, the task irrelevant finger movements facilitated reaction times when movements matched the symbolic cue. The opposite was also found as the irrelevant movements had an interference effect when incongruent with the symbolic cue. Thus, the researchers suggested observation was an automatic influence on action execution.

Spatial compatibility
Confounding variables, such as spatial compatibility, may affect automatic imitation. Spatial compatibility can be defined as the interaction between action response and spatial location. In other words, action response is quicker when the stimulus is perceived to be located in the same position, such as observing a movement on the left side while executing the action on the left side of space In the Brass et al study, participants responded with their right hand to a left hand that was depicted as a mirror image of their own hand. The index finger of the stimulus always looked to be on the left side of the screen while the middle finger always appeared to be on the right side, identical to how it was on the participants’ own hands. Such an effect could have influenced the results of past research, as demonstrated by Bertenthal, Longo and Kosobud. They used the same method as Brass et al, only changing the hand used for the experiment. Instead of a left hand, a right hand was used instead in order to negate the mirror effects seen in the past study. It was found that a facilitation effect occurred when the irrelevant movement matched the spatial location of the stimulus.

Mirror Neurons
The Mirror Neuron System has been implicated as a neural factor of automatic imitation. Mirror neurons respond both to performed actions and observed actions. Mirror neurons were first observed in macaque monkeys and were located in the ventral premotor cortex. In order to elicit the mirror neuron system,, both the observed behaviour and the performed action must be goal-directed. Simply put, mirror neurons do not react to an action alone but instead represent the goal of an action.

Mirror neuron system in humans
Additionally, current evidence has also suggested the mirror neuron system exists within human beings during action observation and performance. Within a study conducted by Iacoboni, Woods, Brass, Bekkering, Mazziotta and Rizzolatti, an fMRI scanner was used to measure frontal and parietal brain regions while participants observed either finger tapping actions or control stimuli. Participants either merely observed them without performing the same action, performed the action or executed a different finger movement than the one show. The results found an increased pattern of activity in the inferior frontal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule. These areas were shown to have the highest activity levels when action observation and performance were combined, suggesting these areas compose the human mirror neuron system.

Gender differences
Mediating factors have been found to influence automatic imitation in humans. For instance, gender of the individual, as well as the person observed, has been demonstrated to affect imitation. Research undertook by Butler, Ward and Ramsey tested participants as to whether automatic imitation was affected by personality traits, such as extraversion and agreeableness. They measured participants’ levels of these traits and had participants perform an automatic imitation task, based on the one used by Brass and colleagues. Instead of finding evidence to suggest personality was a factor, it was noted women had a greater tendency to imitate the hand in the task compared to the men. As the mean reaction time decreases, the sex difference becomes more pronounced. In other words, the sex difference is only apparent at slower imitation speeds.

Several potential explanations have been put forward to explain this affect. The observed hand in the experiment was female and given the evidence that children are more likely to copy from those of the same gender, own sex bias may have been at play. The female participants may have displayed more sensitivity to the female hand, as they perceived it as being part of their in-group, and therefore felt more compelled to imitate the hand. The second explanation refers to the cognitive systems underpinning automatic imitation in the brain. Past research has displayed a basic sex difference in terms of performance on other cognitive tasks. For example, males are faster than females on tasks similar to the automatic imitation task, such as the flanker task, which requires individuals to make a directional response to certain stimuli. Since both tasks require the inhibition of an irrelevant response during an action, it may suggest women find it more difficult to inhibit task-irrelevant responses in comparison to men.

Narcissism
Furthermore, individuals with certain enduring personality traits may vary when it comes to automatically imitating others. One such personality trait is narcissism. Although such a clinical condition exists, as a personality trait, it can be quite high in the general population. Individuals with high levels of narcissism act more selfishly, are more hostile and arrogant and are often more aggressive than those with lower levels of narcissism. They also have less empathy and compassion than their lesser narcissistic counterparts. It has been suggested that these narcissistic tendencies, specifically the lack of empathy, is what enables inhibition of automatic tendencies to imitate. A study by Obhi, Hogeveen, Giacomin & Jordan (2013) demonstrated that narcissism predicted differences in individuals in terms of automatic imitation. They found that while all participants reacted faster to the hand stimuli (as used by Brass et al) when the movement was congruent to the stimuli, higher levels of narcissism were related to reduced interference during the task’s incongruent trials. Therefore, individuals with high levels of narcissism may be less averse to the effects of social stimuli.

Empathy
Much like narcissism, another personality trait affecting automatic imitation is empathy. As a personality trait, empathy involves such tasks as emotional regulation and the ability to understand the viewpoints of other people. Thus, this may predispose individuals with high levels of empathy to imitate others more frequently. Chartrand and Bargh found that people unintentionally match their behaviour with whom they worked with on a task. It was also found that individuals predisposed to higher levels of empathy exhibited this effect more than those with lower levels of empathy.