When Smiling Back Helps and Scowling Back Hurts: Individual Differences in Emotional Mimicry Explain Feelings of (Dis-)Pleasure during Conflict Interactions

Emotional mimicry, the imitation of others’ emotions, generally improves satisfaction during social interactions. We tested whether a non-affiliative tone during conflicts diminishes the benefits of mimicry.
Our data confirm the positive effects of mimicry during affiliative conflict interactions, but they also demonstrate detrimental effects of mimicry during non-affiliative conflict interactions.