Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands.
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, the Netherlands.
Cogn Emot. 2022 Aug;36(5):794-798. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2022.2110452.
In their "social contextual view" of emotional mimicry, authors Hess and Fischer (2022) put forward emotional mimicry as a social regulator, considering it a social act, bound to certain affiliative contexts or goals. In this commentary, we argue that the core function of mimicry is to ease predicting conspecifics' behaviours and the environment, and that as a consequence, this often smoothens social interactions. Accordingly, we make three main points. First, we argue that there is no good reason to believe that the mimicry of negative expressions is fundamentally different than the mimicry of positive or ambiguous or autonomic expressions. Second, we give examples of empirical evidence that mimicry is not always a social act. Third, we show that mimicry has primary benefits for the mimicker. As such, we will briefly summarise and elaborate on the relevant findings in these respects, and propose a comparative, multi-method and ecologically valid approach which can explain the multifaceted character of the phenomenon.
在他们的“情绪模仿的社会情境观点”中，作者赫斯和费舍尔（2022）将情绪模仿视为一种社会调节者，认为它是一种社会行为，必然与某些亲和的情境或目标相关联。在这篇评论中，我们认为模仿的核心功能是帮助预测同类的行为和环境，因此，这常常会使社会互动更加顺畅。相应地，我们提出了三个主要观点。首先，我们认为，没有充分的理由相信消极表情的模仿与积极表情或模糊表情或自主表情的模仿在本质上有什么不同。其次，我们举了一些实证证据的例子来说明模仿并不总是一种社会行为。第三，我们表明模仿对模仿者有主要的好处。因此，我们将简要总结和阐述这些方面的相关发现，并提出一种比较的、多方法的和生态有效的方法，以解释这一现象的多面性。
