The Modulation of Mimicry by Ethnic Group-Membership and Emotional Expressions
Open accessAbstract
Mimicry has been ascribed affiliative functions. In three experiments, we used a newly developed social-affective mimicry task (SAMT) to investigate mimicry´s modulation by emotional facial expressions (happy, angry) and ethnic group-membership (White in-group, Black out-group). Experiment 1 established the main consistent effect across experiments, which was enhanced mimicry to angry out-group faces compared to angry in-group faces. Hence the SAMT was useful for experimentally investigating the modulation of mimicry. Experiment 2 demonstrated that these effects were not confounded by general aspects of response conflict, as a Simon task resulted in different response patterns than the SAMT. Experiment 2 and pooled analysis of Experiments 1 and 2 also corroborated the finding of enhanced mimicry to angry out-group faces. Experiment 3 tested whether this effect was related to perceptions of threat, by framing angry persons as physically threatening, or not. Selective enhancement of mimicry to out-group persons framed as physically threatening confirmed this hypothesis. Further support for the role of threat was derived from implicit measures showing, in all experiments, that black persons were more strongly associated with threat. Furthermore, enhanced mimicry was consistently related to response facilitation in the execution of congruent movements. This suggests that mimicry acted as a social congruency signal. Our findings suggest that mimicry may serve as an appeasement signal in response to negative affiliative intent. This extends previous models of mimicry, which have predominantly focused on its role in reciprocating affiliation. It suggests that mimicry might not only be used to maintain and establish affiliative bonds, but also to ameliorate a negative social situation.
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Findings from a behavioral study suggest that interference control is modulated by contextual factors such as group membership and emotional facial expressions.
“Findings from a behavioral study suggest that interference control is modulated by contextual factors such as group membership and emotional facial expressions (Rauchbauer, Majdandžić, Stieger, & Lamm, 2016).”
From Interplay of self-other distinction and cognitive control mechanisms in a social automatic imitation task: An ERP study (2021) · cites this paper as Rauchbauer, Majdandžić, Stieger, & Lamm, 2016
The Experiment 1 Results and the pooled analysis of Experiments 1 and 2 locate the group-by-emotion effect in response facilitation on congruent trials, with no significant effects on incongruent trials. The General Discussion likewise says the modulation specifically affected facilitation rather than interference control; it notes a separate trend toward reduced response inhibition only when the situation was framed as personally threatening. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe N2 trend result of more negative amplitudes for angry out-group than angry in-group trials mirrored previous behavioral results in the SAMT.
“Our N2 trend result of more negative amplitudes for angry out-group than angry in-group trials mirrored previous behavioral results in the SAMT (Rauchbauer et al., 2016).”
From Interplay of self-other distinction and cognitive control mechanisms in a social automatic imitation task: An ERP study (2021) · cites this paper as Rauchbauer et al., 2016
The study did not replicate previous behavioral results of enhanced regulation of automatic imitation for angry out-group compared with angry in-group faces.
“We did not replicate previous behavioral results of enhanced regulation of automatic imitation for angry out-group compared with angry in-group faces (Rauchbauer et al., 2016).”
From Interplay of self-other distinction and cognitive control mechanisms in a social automatic imitation task: An ERP study (2021) · cites this paper as Rauchbauer et al., 2016
Automatic imitation has been shown to be modulated by social context cues.
“Automatic imitation has been shown to be modulated by social context cues (see e.g.3–11)”
From Event-related potentials of automatic imitation are modulated by ethnicity during stimulus processing, but not during motor execution (2018) · cites this paper as [7]
Stimuli were presented using two consecutive frames to simulate finger lifting movement, to minimise the influence of ERP component overlap induced by rapidly changing frames in the EEG/ERP signal.
“Stimuli were presented using two consecutive frames to simulate finger lifting movement (as opposed to the set-up of the SAMT used in7,8 using 4 frames) to minimise the influence of ERP component overlap induced by rapidly changing frames in the EEG/ERP signal (Fig. 1).”
From Event-related potentials of automatic imitation are modulated by ethnicity during stimulus processing, but not during motor execution (2018) · cites this paper as [7]
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Funder, D. C., Levine, J. M., Mackie, D. M., Morf, C. C., Vazire, S., & West, S. G. (2014) · doi:10.7892/boris.65527 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
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Automatic imitation: A meta-analysis.
Cracco, E., Bardi, L., Desmet, C., Genschow, O., Rigoni, D., De Coster, L., Radkova, I., Deschrijver, E., & Brass, M. (2018) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000143 · Cited by 228 · see citing works
Neurocognitive Basis of Racial Ingroup Bias in Empathy
Han, S. (2018) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2018.02.013 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
“, the own-race bias in memory of faces) [61,94], attitude/prejudice [95,96], stereotype [97–99], and imitation [100].”
Fischer, A. H., & Heß, U. (2017) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.008 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
Automatic imitation of pro- and antisocial gestures: Is implicit social behavior censored?
Cracco, E., Genschow, O., Radkova, I., & Braß, M. (2017) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2017.09.019 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Farmer, H., & Maister, L. (2017) · Social Justice Research · doi:10.1007/s11211-017-0294-1 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Emotional mimicry as social regulator: theoretical considerations
Heß, U., & Fischer, A. H. (2022) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699931.2022.2103522 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
“, 2003) and impeded in the presence of outgroups (Rauchbauer et al., 2016; van der Schalk et al., 2011).”
BackgroundRauchbauer, B., & Grosbras, M. (2020) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.07.032 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Self-citationLaméris, D. W., van Berlo, E., Sterck, E. H. M., Bionda, T., & Kret, M. E. (2020) · American Journal of Primatology · doi:10.1002/ajp.23138 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
The bright and the dark sides of motor simulation
Panasiti, M. S., Porciello, G., & Aglioti, S. M. (2017) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.05.020 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Group membership does not modulate automatic imitation
Genschow, O., Westfal, M., Cracco, E., & Crusius, J. (2021) · Psychological Research · doi:10.1007/s00426-021-01526-1 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Social group membership does not modulate automatic imitation in a contrastive multi-agent paradigm
Souter, L. D., Braem, S., Genschow, O., Braß, M., & Cracco, E. (2021) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1177/1747021820986528 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“Another social factor that has been argued to play an important role in automatic imitation is social group membership (Genschow & Schindler, 2016; Gleibs et al., 2016; Rauchbauer et al., 2015, 2016).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialDining with liberals and conservatives: The social underpinnings of food neophobia
Guidetti, M., Carraro, L., & Cavazza, N. (2022) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0262676 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
The Other and Me: Effects of oxytocin on self-other distinction
Tomova, L., Heinrichs, M., & Lamm, C. (2018) · International Journal of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2018.03.008 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Self-citationHoman, M. D., Schumacher, G., & Bakker, B. N. (2022) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/emo0001172 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
The Influence of Facial Signals on the Automatic Imitation of Hand Actions
Butler, E. E., Ward, R. D., & Ramsey, R. (2016) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01653 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Self-categorization as a basis of behavioural mimicry: Experiments in The Hive
Neville, F., Drury, J., Reicher, S. D., Choudhury, S., Stott, C., Ball, R., & Richardson, D. C. (2020) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0241227 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“Since that there was greater mimicry of ingroup than outgroup members, affiliation through appeasement [25,26] did not seem to be a factor in our study.”
BackgroundGenschow, O., Cracco, E., Verbeke, P., Westfal, M., & Crusius, J. (2021) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104824 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Challenges and opportunities for top-down modulation research in cognitive psychology
Ramsey, R., & Ward, R. (2020) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103118 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“It also reinforces the recent suggestion that basic research in brain science could benefit from engaging with research in real-world settings, so-called real-life neuroscience (Redcay & Schilbach, 2019; Shamay-Tsoory & Mendelsohn, 2019).”
BackgroundBeing mimicked affects inhibitory mechanisms of imitation
Rauchbauer, B., Dunbar, R., & Lamm, C. (2020) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103132 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Self-citationRauchbauer, B., Pfabigan, D. M., & Lamm, C. (2018) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-018-30926-4 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Self-citationImitation and interindividual differences: Belief in free will is not related to automatic imitation
Westfal, M., Crusius, J., & Genschow, O. (2021) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103374 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“…imitate a human hand more strongly than a robot hand (Press et al., 2006), an in-group member than an out-group member (Genschow & Schindler, 2016; Rauchbauer et al., 2016), a goalless action more strongly than a goal-directed one (Chia-varino et al., 2013), social gestures more strongly compared…”
BackgroundThe Tree of Social Cognition: Hierarchically Organized Capacities of Mentalizing
Malle, B. F. (2021) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-51890-5_17 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Zhang, Y.-H., Wang, X., Chen, M., Tai, Y.-M., & Li, J.-H. (2022) · Animals · doi:10.3390/ani12162151 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“Behavioral contagion may increase social cohesion as a coordinated and adaptive process for group members [24,29,30].”
BackgroundFino, E., Menegatti, M., Avenanti, A., & Rubini, M. (2019) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-019-51858-7 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Top-down social modulation of perception-action coupling
Cracco, E., Genschow, O., & Baess, P. (2021) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103481 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Imitation in one's own presence: No specific effect of self-focus on imitation
Khemka, D., Ahmadilari, N., Bird, G., & Catmur, C. (2020) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103194 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Right Temporoparietal Junction Modulates In-Group Bias in Facial Emotional Mimicry: A tDCS Study
Peng, S., Kuang, B., & Hu, P. (2020) · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2020.00143 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Rauchbauer, B., Lorenz, C., Lamm, C., & Pfabigan, D. M. (2021) · Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3758/s13415-021-00878-w · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Self-citationCorrection: The Modulation of Mimicry by Ethnic Group-Membership and Emotional Expressions
Rauchbauer, B., Majdandžić, J., Stieger, S., & Lamm, C. (2016) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0162935 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Self-citationIs it a Match? Yawn Contagion and Smile Mimicry in Toddlers
Norscia, I., Caselli, M., Scianna, C., Morone, S., Brescini, M., & Cordoni, G. (2025) · Human Nature · doi:10.1007/s12110-025-09488-8 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“Additionally, group membership—including country of origin and eth-nicity—can influence the amount of mimicry response to others’ facial expressions (also according to type, e.g., happy vs angry) in young children and adults (de Klerk et al., 2019; Rauchbauer et al., 2016; Seibt et al., 2015).”
Observed shyness leads to more automatic imitation in early childhood
MacGowan, T. L., Mirabelli, J., Obhi, S. S., & Schmidt, L. A. (2022) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.22272 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Validation of an online imitation-inhibition task
Westfal, M., Cracco, E., Crusius, J., & Genschow, O. (2025) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/s13428-024-02557-3 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“…the idea that ingroup versus outgroup members (e.g., De Souter et al., 2021; Genschow & Schindler, 2016; Genschow et al., 2023; Gleibs et al., 2016; Rauchbauer et al., 2016) or direct versus averted gaze (e.g., Trilla et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2010) increases automatic imitation is rather unclear.”
Dynamic emotional expressions do not modulate responses to gestures
Farmer, H., Mahmood, R., Gregory, S. E. A., Tishina, P., & Hamilton, A. F. D. C. (2020) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103226 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Cognitive Mechanisms of Being Imitated
Wicher, P., Farmer, H., & Hamilton, A. F. D. C. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-62634-0_14 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Dezecache, G., & Mercier, H. (2024) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197544754.013.54 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Peng, S., Kuang, B., Zhang, L., & Hu, P. (2021) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2021.606292 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Automatic imitation of in- and out-group membersPreprint
Genschow, O., Westfal, M., Cracco, E., & Crusius, J. (2021) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/yurdk · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Social Modulation of Imitative Behavior
Genschow, O., & Cracco, E. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-62634-0_11 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Oomen, D., & Genschow, O. (2024) · Possibility Studies & Society · doi:10.1177/27538699241252883 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Across six high-powered experiments (total N = 1,538) they found no effect of group membership on automatic imitation (for similar findings, see De Souter et al., 2021; Rauchbauer et al., 2015, 2016).”
How video calls affect mimicry and trust during interactionsPreprint
Diana, F., Juárez-Mora, O. E., Hortensius, R., Boekel, W., & Kret, M. E. (2022) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/vrkdf · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Neurodynamic evidence reveals identity top-down influences emotional contagion of race
Kong, C., Wei, Y., & Hu, P. (2025) · Cognitive Neurodynamics · doi:10.1007/s11571-025-10322-1 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Rauchbauer et al. (2016) and Axt (2018 ) used an implicit joint paradigm to find that positive preferences exist for the same-race, while there are negative preferences for other-race, and that positive self-focus leads people to attribute positive things to their race and negative things to the…”
Age invariance in rapid facial affective reactions to emotionally valenced stimuli
Nangle, M. R., Bailey, P. E., Henry, J. D., Khlentzos, G. S., Varcin, K. J., & Whitton, A. E. (2017) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17470218.2017.1345960 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Similarity and automatic imitationPreprint
Genschow, O., Cracco, E., Verbeke, P., Westfal, M., & Crusius, J. (2021) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/jnf8t · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Social group membership does not modulate automatic imitation in a contrastive multi-agent paradigmPreprint
Souter, L. D., Braem, S., Genschow, O., Braß, M., & Cracco, E. (2020) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/hzp2k
Imitation and interindividual differences: Belief in free will is not related to automatic imitationPreprint
Westfal, M., Crusius, J., & Genschow, O. (2021) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/bk2j4
RamseyWard_top_down_challengesPreprint
Ramsey, R., & Ward, R. D. (2020) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/yar65
Visible skin disease symptoms of another person reduce automatic imitation of their hand movements
Aulbach, M. B., Harjunen, V. J., & Spapé, M. (2022) · Psychological Research · doi:10.1007/s00426-022-01731-6 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Xu, X., & Hu, P. (2023) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs13080677
“Some studies have observed the mimicry of angry expressions in distancing contexts, such as frowning in response to outgroup members [21,22], or individuals exhibiting heightened states [23].”
BackgroundKuang, B., Peng, S., Wu, Y., Chen, Y., & Hu, P. (2023) · Brain Sciences · doi:10.3390/brainsci14010025
“Additionally, other researchers found an out-group preference in anger mimicry [28].”
BackgroundWingenbach, T. S. H., Missura, S., Peyk, P., & Pfaltz, M. C. (2026) · Motivation and Emotion · doi:10.1007/s11031-026-10228-3
“Many studies have reported modulating factors of facial mimicry, such as ethnicity (Rauchbauer et al., 2016), social reward value (Sims et al., 2012), and attitudes (Likowski et al., 2008).”
- Authors
- Rauchbauer, B., Majdandžić, J., Stieger, S., & Lamm, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Vienna (AT)
- Corresponding author
- Lamm, Claus
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2016-08-24
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- e0161064
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4996423
- OpenAlex
- W2518401658
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 6.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2016-09-08)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Phaidra (Universität Wien) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- KOPS (University of Konstanz) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) (CS11-005)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- mimicry, ethnic group membership, in-group favoritism, emotional facial expressions, anger, threat perception, Simon task, response facilitation
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