The Other Side of the Mirror

Forbes:

I’ve posted previously about the power of mirroring – that gentle mimicry that acts as a kind of “social glue” in business relationships. Mirroring signals rapport, trust, and cohesion. Two people who like and agree with one another will often unknowingly place their bodies in mirror images of one another and even unconsciously move in synchrony. And this “limbic symmetry” strengthens their bond.

When done with intent, mirroring can be a useful leadership technique in sales, negotiations, job interviews, collaboration and team building.

But a new study from the University of California, San Diego shows that there are often observers to the act of mirroring, and under certain circumstances these observers may think less of the person who mimics another. Results of three experiments suggest that mimicry is more nuanced than previously thought and not, the authors write, “uniformly beneficial to the mimicker.”

Read the whole story: Forbes