Department of Affective Psychology, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary.
Proc Biol Sci. 2012 Aug 22;279(1741):3231-3. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.0500. Epub 2012 May 2.
Over the past decade, a compelling number of studies reported that observing an action makes the imitation of that action more likely. The automatic character of human imitative behaviour was often claimed, but rarely tested. The demonstration of the absence of conscious control has been attempted in a recent report claiming that imitation can occur in the rock-paper-scissors (RPS) game, where strategic players should avoid imitating their opponents. This surprising result could serve as strong evidence that humans imitate each other unconsciously. We find, however, that this conclusion is problematic. In addition to reviewing the original methods, in this work, we also replicated the experiment with double the sample size. Thorough examination of the original analyses and the results of the present replication do not support the original conclusion. In our view, testing the theory of automatic imitation in RPS games is a potentially promising avenue of exploration, yet the interpretation of the data requires further understanding of the subsidiary effects controlling the behaviour of the players.
在过去的十年中，大量引人注目的研究报告指出，观察一个动作会使模仿该动作的可能性增加。人们经常声称人类模仿行为具有自动性，但很少对此进行测试。最近的一份报告试图证明无意识控制的缺失，声称在石头剪刀布（RPS）游戏中可以进行模仿，而策略型玩家应该避免模仿对手。这一令人惊讶的结果可能是人类无意识地相互模仿的有力证据。然而，我们发现这个结论存在问题。除了回顾原始方法外，在这项工作中，我们还将样本量增加了一倍进行了复制实验。对原始分析和本复制实验结果的彻底检查不支持原始结论。在我们看来，在 RPS 游戏中测试自动模仿理论是一个具有潜在前景的探索途径，但数据的解释需要进一步了解控制玩家行为的辅助效应。
