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Retail salespeople's mimicry of customers: Effects on consumer behavior
Abstract
Developing interpersonal bonds between employees and customers in selling contexts can increase sales and positive perceptions of the employees and the store. Recent studies have found that mimicking the verbal and nonverbal behavior of strangers enhanced their liking for the individual who mimicked them, and influenced helping behavior. An experiment was carried out in a retail setting where four sales clerks were instructed to mimic, or not, some of the verbal expressions and nonverbal behavior of the customers. On their way out, these customers were asked to evaluate the sales clerks and the store. Results showed that mimicry was associated with a higher sales rate, greater compliance to the sales clerk's suggestion during the selling process, and more positive evaluations of both the sales clerks and the store. It was found that these evaluations mediate the relationship between mimicry and customers' behavior. Experiment 2 confirmed the behavioral effect of mimicry when a baseline condition was introduced. These results seem to show that mimicry really helps managers to develop positive relationships between their sellers and their customers.
... In an experiment run in a store selling electronic devices orders were mimicked (Jacob et al., 2011). For example, if the patron said to the clerk "Can you help me buy an MP3 player?, " the salesperson would reply: "Of course I can help you buy an MP3 player. ...
... Mimicry in both laboratory and natural settings creates trust (Maddux et al., 2008;Swaab et al., 2011) and rapport (Muir et al., 2020), it also influences purchasing decisions (Tanner et al., 2008;Jacob et al., 2011;Stel et al., 2011a;Kulesza et al., 2014bKulesza et al., , 2017Kulesza et al., , 2019Kulesza et al., , 2022bChristie and Chen, 2018) by eliciting susceptibility to the persuasiveness of the mimicker (Van Swol, 2003;Drury and Van Swol, 2005). On this grounds, it may be assumed that research on mimicry and its spillover potential has focused mainly on products, and only partially considered the crucial aspect of spreading the benefits of mimicry to the entire company/organization. ...
... On this grounds, it may be assumed that research on mimicry and its spillover potential has focused mainly on products, and only partially considered the crucial aspect of spreading the benefits of mimicry to the entire company/organization. Among the first investigations on this issue, Jacob et al. (2011) discovered that a mimicker, despite selling more products to the mimickee, can create a positive evaluation of the entire company/organization that the mimicker represents. Thus, based on Jacob et al. (2011) work, we present a conceptual replication of this result. ...
Numerous experiments have proven that mimicry is highly beneficial (mainly to the mimicker but also to the mimickee). Some studies have shown initial data suggesting the potential of applying this knowledge to business settings. In the present paper we unpack this issue in two ways. First, by presenting potential benefits stemming from mimicry for the mimicking dyad, and second for the business environment represented by the mimicker. Two consecutive studies: a Pretest and a Main Experiment run in natural settings showed great potential in improving the assessments of quality of service provided by verbally mimicking (or not). The results of both studies showed that mimicry offers benefits for the mimicker (increased employee kindness and employee evaluation), and also spillover to the organization/company represented by the mimicking employee (increased opinion of and willingness to return to the shop/hotel). Future research directions and limitations are discussed.
... Indeed, a number of researchers have proposed that mimicry affects interpersonal relationships (Chartrand & Dalton, 2009;Duffy & Chartrand, 2015;Stel & Vonk, 2010). For example, it helps the mimicker and the mimicked create harmonious interactions and empathy (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999;Lakin, Jefferis, Cheng, & Chartrand, 2003), generate rapport (Berger, 2016;, develop social glue (Berger, 2016), and express feelings of connection (Duffy & Chartrand, 2015), and liking (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999;Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011). In this respect, mimicry has an effect not only on individuals' nonsocial behaviors, but also on their social behaviors. ...
... Mimicry also affects nonsocial behavioral outcomes, such as consumers' decisions (Jacob et al., 2011;Tanner, Ferraro, Chartrand, Bettman, & Baaren, 2007). Social interaction between two people, whether highly central to a consumer's choice (e.g., when negotiating with a salesperson in a retail store) or more peripheral (e.g., when browsing in a store among other shoppers), often plays a critical role in purchase decisions (Tanner et al., 2007). ...
... Social interaction between two people, whether highly central to a consumer's choice (e.g., when negotiating with a salesperson in a retail store) or more peripheral (e.g., when browsing in a store among other shoppers), often plays a critical role in purchase decisions (Tanner et al., 2007). Specifically, Jacob et al. (2011) demonstrated empirically that sales clerks who mimic customers' verbal and/or nonverbal expressions consciously generate more sales than those who do not. We expect that this phenomenon also occurs in the social media context. ...
We explore the mechanism through which social media influencers (SMIs) persuade consumers to adopt brands. Guided by the influence framework, we propose and test empirically SMIs’ influence mechanism, which occurs in four principal stages: (a) a SMI's influence attempts (showcasing H1: attractive; H2: prestigious; H3 and H4: expert; H5: informative; and H6: interactive Instagram contents); (b) target consumers’ attitudinal response to the influence exercised (evaluating the SMI as a H7: taste and H8: opinion leader); which, in turn, affects (c) the targets’ desire to comply (the desire to mimic); and ultimately (d) their favorable behavioral outcomes (H9: social media word‐of‐mouth and H10: purchase intentions). On the basis of the survey data from 395 respondents, we used structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses and proposed model. We verified the robustness of our results using an ordered probit regression model and analyzed the mediating role of consumers’ desire to mimic SMIs in the influence mechanism. Our results confirm that the five aspects of influencing posts affect consumers’ attitudes positively and significantly, which in turn leads to positive behavioral outcomes through their desire to mimic SMIs. We discuss the results’ important implications for both scholars and practitioners.
... In this paper we present another (and very importantly, quick and easy to employ) mechanism -stemming from social psychology research -leading to more positive evaluations of business hospitality. Mirroring, the chameleon effect, imitation of behavior, or simply mimicry is highly pervasive in human interaction (Chartrand & Lakin, 2013), and it is one of the possible strategies used by experienced retail employees to build rapport and to increase overall customer satisfaction (Gremler & Gwinner, 2008;Jacob et al., 2011). Even though in some contexts mirroring does not result in building affiliation and amicability (Szczepek Reed, 2020), in others it has a profound and measurable effect, such as significant increases in tips (van Baaren et al., 2003) or a higher perceived competence (Badrinarayanan et al., 2019;Weiss, 1977). ...
... As a result of elicited prosocial behaviors, mimicked participants display more trust (Swaab et al., 2011). A mimicking server receives better tips from patrons (van Baaren et al., 2003) and a mimicking sales clerk sells more in the setting of an electronics and appliances store (Jacob et al., 2011;Kulesza et al., 2014b). More research into this phenomenon is needed. ...
Background
In an experiment conducted in a natural setting, we test the link between mimicry, the amount of time during which the mimicry behavior takes place, and its impact on service quality.
Methods
Cable TV clients (n = 120) were randomly assigned to six experimental conditions (2 mimicry conditions: verbal mimicry vs. no mimicry x 3 interaction time: 5 vs. 10 vs. 15 minutes). Perceived service quality served as the dependent measurement.
Results
A main effect of mimicry was found on service quality: a cable TV representative was perceived more favorably when he mimicked the customer. Importantly, it was shown that even small portions of mimicry are beneficial, meaning that practitioners do not have to mimic someone for a long time to achieve benefits.
Conclusion
The paper shows new benefits for the mimicker: more positive judgments by the mimickee regarding the impact on several different levels of service quality.
... The act may be verbal or nonverbal; however, for this paper, we refer to behavioral mirroring in the nonverbal sense. Mirroring has many benefits in humanhuman communication, including increasing likability (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999;Duy & Chartrand, 2015;Jacob, Gueguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011), rapport (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999;Duy & Chartrand, 2015;Kendon, 1970;Lafrance & Broadbent, 1976;Lakin & Chartrand, 2003), and persuasion (Jacob et al., 2011;van Swol, 2003). Kendon (1970) was one of the earliest to study mirroring, calling it "interactional synchrony" that naturally occurred between individuals. ...
... Mirroring can even influence behavior. In a study by Jacob et al. (2011), customers who interacted with a retail clerk that mimicked their behaviors rated the clerk as more likable and having more influence. The customers who interacted with the mirroring clerk were also more likely to spend more. ...
Virtual agents are systems that add a social dimension to computing, often featuring not only natural language input but also an embodiment or avatar. This allows them to take on a more social role and leverage the use of nonverbal communication (NVC). In humans, NVC is used for many purposes, including communicating intent, directing attention, and conveying emotion. As a result, researchers have developed agents that emulate these behaviors. However, challenges pervade the design and development of NVC in agents. Some articles reveal inconsistencies in the benefits of agent NVC; others show signs of difficulties in the process of analyzing and implementing behaviors. Thus, it is unclear what the specific outcomes and effects of incorporating NVC in agents and what outstanding challenges underlie development. This survey seeks to review the uses, outcomes, and development of NVC in virtual agents to identify challenges and themes to improve and motivate the design of future virtual agents.
... Chan and Sengupta (2010) 4 experiments Flattery from salesperson positively impacts implicit customer judgments after a delay. Jacob et al. 2011 2 field experiments When salesperson mimics the customer the customer evaluates the salesperson and retailer more favorably. Jiang et al. (2010) 4 experiments When customer is aware of incidental similarities shared with salespersons they show more positive attitudes and purchase intentions. ...
... similarities or incidental behaviors. As one example, when a salesperson mimics a customer (e.g., copies the gestures that the customer makes), the focal customer evaluates both the salesperson and the store more favorably (Jacob et al., 2011). Another subtle, yet effective, form of social influence is shared incidental similarities (e.g., having the same birth date, graduating from the same university) between the salesperson and the focal customer. ...
In this article we review research from the past decade that explores how elements of social influence in the bricks-and-mortar retail environment impact customers. We focus our discussion on demonstrating how the active and passive social influence of the salesforce and other shoppers in the retail context can impact a focal customer’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Additionally, we utilize our review as an opportunity to highlight a variety of directions future research could pursue to further our understanding of the impact of the social retail environment.’
... Prior research on touch in the field of interpersonal communication has shown that touch increases one's involvement, positive affect, social attachment, intimacy and overall liking (Sundaram & Webster, 2000). Touch helps build relationships and increase familiarity with the toucher (Jacob, Gu eguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011). Further, recipients of touch have been shown to associate positive characteristics with those that touched them and the environment in which they were touched (Jacob et al., 2011;Patterson, Powell, & Lenihan, 1986). ...
... Touch helps build relationships and increase familiarity with the toucher (Jacob, Gu eguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011). Further, recipients of touch have been shown to associate positive characteristics with those that touched them and the environment in which they were touched (Jacob et al., 2011;Patterson, Powell, & Lenihan, 1986). Moreover, touch has been shown to favorably influence consumer judgements. ...
Interpersonal touch has been shown to affect consumer behaviors such as compliance with a request, impulse buying, and tipping behavior. In this study, we examine if the impact of touch on purchase behavior is gender specific, and if it depends on how much the individual likes the product. Findings indicate male consumers are more likely to purchase a product at low to moderate levels of perceived tastiness when they are touched by a female server, whereas females are less likely to purchase. However, the touch encounter doesn’t matter for either gender when a consumer really likes the product.
... The results showed that tip amounts were significantly higher in the first condition. In work by Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, and Boulbry (2011) customers who were mimicked spent more money and offered more favorable judgments of a store, its products, and sales clerks. In another study by Kulesza, Szypowska, Jarman, and Dolinski (2014) results showed that customers who interacted with a salesperson which was both attractive and mimicked them spent the most money, and they also gave the highest customer service ratings. ...
... In this case, the ratings of Extreme Star were boosted as a result of this effect. Our results also align nicely with work by Jacob et al. (2011), where mimicry was associated with a higher sales rate and more positive evaluations of both sales clerks and store. However, the products they used were positive (mp3 players) in contrast to the unsought products used in our research. ...
In the present paper we explore if interaction with a second person may change the experience and perception of the taste of distasteful beverages. The aim of the current research is to explore the impact of mimicry on flavor perception of unsought beverages which are beneficial, but due to factors such as unpleasant taste may be perceived negatively and thus avoided. In the first study, the participants were either mimicked or not mimicked by the confederate. The second study focused on measuring the amount of mimicry engaged in by the participant. The research reported here demonstrates that (1) mimicry of others can be used to influence their willingness to purchase an unsought product and to increase the price they are willing to pay for it, and (2) the level of non-conscious mimicry by a consumer can be used to predict their willingness to purchase an unsought product.
... Hornik (1992) concludes that interpersonal, casual touch during service exchanges, primarily food-related exchanges, contributes to customers' positive regard for the server, as touch connotes meaning such as closeness, warmth, empathy (i.e., being cared for), connection, and affection, all of which serve to increase customer comfort (Spake et al., 2003). Indeed, most retailing and service researchers have found that a "slight" touch from a retail clerk or restaurant employee results in favorable customer responses, including a propensity to purchase, increased spending, and provision of larger tips (Guéguen and Jacob, 2005;Jacob et al., 2011). However, a slight touch differs from more intricate touch that often transpires in luxury retail settings, especially during apparel alterations (Peretz, 1995). ...
... Yet, when female shoppers sought assistance with luggage (in which a mandate of privacy did not exist), they felt comfortable and were equally willing to work with heterosexual or gay male sales associates. Overall, these findings contribute to the touch paradigm in retailing and services (Guéguen and Jacob, 2005;Jacob et al., 2011) by showing that female response differs between slight and somewhat more intimate male employee touching. ...
This article explores an under-researched area in retailing; namely, straight female shoppers’ preferences for working with gay male sales associates. Study 1 employs qualitative methodology to show that female shoppers often prefer working with gay male sales associates when they are older or heavier than female sales associates. Study 2 employs experimental methodology to show that female shoppers desire to work with gay male associates more than their straight male counterparts when they are purchasing merchandise requiring non-sexual intimacy, such as apparel and cosmetics. The results should help retailers understand why many female shoppers willingly, and comfortably, work with gay male sales associates and the role of gay associates in various retail departments.
... an early indicator of agreement of the interactional process [16], [37]. It has long been observed that head gestures such as nodding, increase the opportunities for a person to be liked [29], [45], while the occurrence of mirroring is an early predictor of acceptance [22], [33], [38], [62]. However, as far as we know, there is a void in the literature on how nodding/mirroring in a dyadic interaction can influence the perception of competence 1 . ...
... For instance, mimicking the verbal behavior of customers in a restaurant was associated with a higher rate of customers who gave a tip and with larger amounts of the tips [63]. In the retail sector, Jacob et al. [38] found an increment in sales rates when mimicking (78.8%) versus non-mimicking (61.8%). Besides, clerk's suggestions were more influential when purchasing a product: 71.1% of customers exposed to mirroring bought the object suggested by the seller versus 46.2% in the nonmirroring case. ...
Nonverbal communication is an intrinsic part in daily face-To-face meetings. A frequently observed behavior during social interactions is mirroring, in which one person tends to mimic the attitude of the counterpart. This paper shows that a computer vision system could be used to predict the perception of competence in dyadic interactions through the automatic detection of mirroring events. To prove our hypothesis, we developed: (1) A social assistant for mirroring detection, using a wearable device which includes a video camera and (2) an automatic classifier for the perception of competence, using the number of nodding gestures and mirroring events as predictors. For our study, we used a mixed-method approach in an experimental design where 48 participants acting as customers interacted with a confederated psychologist. We found that the number of nods or mirroring events has a significant influence on the perception of competence. Our results suggest that: (1) Customer mirroring is a better predictor than psychologist mirroring; (2) the number of psychologist's nods is a better predictor than the number of customer's nods; (3) except for the psychologist mirroring, the computer vision algorithm we used worked about equally well whether it was acquiring images from wearable smartglasses or fixed cameras.
... willingness to service, enthusiasm towards customers, bring trustworthiness and friendliness. Negative nonverbal cues bring the opposite of them (Jacob et al. 2011;Yuksel et al. 2007). The current study found accounts from M13. ...
As a topic, nonverbal communication (e.g., expressions of emotions) remains inadequately focused on tourism and hospitality research. Its qualitative significance in service encounters is also virtually unexplored. Given the importance of employees' display of affective characteristics as vivid outcomes of nonverbal communication, i.e., responsiveness, friendliness, trustworthiness, competence, and compassion toward customers, the current study aims to explore customers' experiences toward nonverbal communication of employees during service encounters. By using transcendental phenomenology as a methodological framework, the study resorted to in-depth interviews with 13 customers, representing different nationalities, with whom the study found nonverbal communication as expressions of "body signal, mood, icon, marketing aids, mind changer and anything unspoken" that are conceived quickly and make customers feel welcome and comfortable. The study also found realistic experiences that customers could take their meals at home; they visited the restaurant for having different experiences: refreshment and relaxation while dining. In that emotional situation, they expected favourable nonverbal behaviour instead of a worried face, ignorance, mouse on the floor. The discussion of results is carried out concerning the characteristics of nonverbal communication and the theory of emotional contagion.
... One of the central jobs that marketers expect influencers to do is generate a desire to purchase endorsed products. Moreover, mimicry impacts behavioral outcomes like consumer purchase decisions (Jacob et al. 2011). Mimicking can be a conscious or unconscious process through which an individual tries to replicate a role model's consumption patterns (e.g. ...
Objective-This paper conceptualizes a novel theoretical model of consumer mimicry of various types of influencers and associated behavioral outcomes. Design-This model was conceptualized after a thorough literature review and gap analysis. Moreover, prominent and underrepresented concepts from the literature were integrated to develop the novel model synthesized in this paper. Findings-Many facets of social media influencers have been studied in extant literature. These include source and content characteristics along with marketing strategies and sponsorship disclosures. However, most studies examine influencers from a broad perspective without refinement. Influencers are grouped into four categories based on their following and expertise: mega, macro, micro, and mini-influencers. Such categorizations are rarely reflected in the existing literature. Moreover, consumer mimicry of influencers and the consumer well-being aspects have been largely understudied. Policy Implications-Choosing the right influencer is challenging. Therefore, recognizing which types of influencers evoke consumer mimicry (and which don't) will ease the selection process. This will increase the efficiency of influencer marketing campaigns run by marketers and brands. Originality-This is the first paper to incorporate all four types of influencer categories into a theoretical model. Subsequently, the largely scarce concept in SMI research, consumer well-being, has also been incorporated to ensure followers' welfare.
... The list of positive outcomes for mimickers is not limited to this alone. Mimickers also receive more tips (van Baaren et al., 2003), and sell more (Jacob et al., 2011;Kulesza et al., 2014). Mimickers are perceived as more persuasive (van Swol, 2003), receive more help (van Baaren et al., 2004), are more trusted (Swaab et al., 2011), and are considered more physically attractive (Guéguen, 2009). ...
... Two groups were given a visual prompt of the talker: one group of participants in the visual prompt condition was presented with an image of a prototypical male and the other group with the image of a prototypical female. Given that previous studies have shown that rapid evaluative inferences based solely on facial and vocal information can exert a significant influence on the perceiver/listener behavior [e.g., sales (Jacob et al., 2011), stock market returns (Mayew and Venkatachalam, 2012), wage penalty (Grogger, 2011;Rickford et al., 2015), election outcomes (Todorov et al., 2005;Klofstad, 2017), housing market interactions (Purnell et al., 1999), likelihood of vowel imitation (Babel, 2012), and language processing speed (Staum Casasanto, 2010)], we hypothesize that listeners would adjust their perceptual cue weights if they are aware of the association between the VOT/onset F0 covariation on the one hand and the socio-indexical and personality characteristics on the other. We also aimed to examine whether facial and vocal impressions exert similar influences on the listener's cue weighting. ...
Speech categories are defined by multiple acoustic dimensions and their boundaries are generally fuzzy and ambiguous in part because listeners often give differential weighting to these cue dimensions during phonetic categorization. This study explored how a listener's perception of a speaker's socio-indexical and personality characteristics influences the listener's perceptual cue weighting. In a matched-guise study, three groups of listeners classified a series of gender-neutral /b/-/p/ continua that vary in VOT and F0 at the onset of the following vowel. Listeners were assigned to one of three prompt conditions (i.e., a visually male talker, a visually female talker, or audio-only) and rated the talker in terms of vocal (and facial, in the visual prompt conditions) gender prototypicality, attractiveness, friendliness, confidence, trustworthiness, and gayness. Male listeners and listeners who saw a male face showed less reliance on VOT compared to listeners in the other conditions. Listeners' visual evaluation of the talker also affected their weighting of VOT and onset F0 cues, although the effects of facial impressions differ depending on the gender of the listener. The results demonstrate that individual differences in perceptual cue weighting are modulated by the listener's gender and his/her subjective evaluation of the talker. These findings lend support for exemplar-based models of speech perception and production where socio-indexical features are encoded as a part of the episodic traces in the listeners' mental lexicon. This study also shed light on the relationship between individual variation in cue weighting and community-level sound change by demonstrating that VOT and onset F0 co-variation in North American English has acquired a certain degree of socio-indexical significance.
... Al contrario, essere imitati nei propri acqusti determina una maggiore vicinanza sociale nei confronti del proprio imitatore, che incide, a sua volta, sull'intenzione d'acquisto. In un altro studio, Jacob et al. (2011) hanno analizzato il comportamento imitativo nel retailing focalizzandosi sull'interazione tra venditore e compratore. Nello specifico, hanno dimostrato che l'imitazione del comportamento dei consumatori da parte dei venditori all'interno di un punto vendita può determinare un significativo incremento della spesa. ...
... The type of accommodation that is the focus of the present chapter may be considered the micro-level of accommodation. It is concerned with individual linguistic aspects, which have been attested on all linguistic levels (e.g. for syntax see Bock 1986;Gries 2005; for morphology see Trudgill 1986;; for semantics (and pragmatics) see Heim 1992;Beaver and Zeevat 2007;Liberman 2012; for lexical choice see Van Baaren et al. 2003;Jacob et al. 2011; for phonetics and phonology see Sancier and Fowler 1997;Pardo 2006;Nilsenová et al. 2009;Fabiano-Smith et al. 2010;Chang 2013;Pardo et al. 2013;Tobin et al. 2017; and for multiple levels of linguistics see Ferrarra 1991). The effects are not limited to oral communication but were also found in text-based communication documented by Sowada (2019, see also Schiegg 2015). ...
... It can be important for promoting social functioning (Chartrand and Lakin 2013) and is associated both with a more positive evaluation of the mimicker (Chartrand and Bargh 1999) and with a greater feeling of affiliation (La France and Mayo 1979). Customers who interact with a salesperson who mimicked them spent the most money and gave the highest customer service ratings (Kulesza et al. 2014;Jacob et al. 2011). Being so, it follows that, when an embarrassed client and a salesperson interact, mimicking by the FLSE may be beneficial, considering that it is good marketing policy to make all efforts to alleviate this feeling, since embarrassment can have negative effects on the behaviors of customers (Wu and Mattila 2013). ...
In this paper we use qualitative data to identify how pharmacy frontline sales employees try to build rapport toward embarrassed clients using nonverbal interpersonal communication (NVIC). Upon doing so, we build on a conceptual framework where NIVC can create rapport in embarrassing situations, with the client usually preferring the salesperson who, through expressive similarity, connects himself/herself with the client’s emotion and behaves discreetly, preserving the client from unnecessary exposure. Four methods were triangulated, including the critical incident technique. Results show that rapport building on the part of these salespeople by means of NIVC toward embarrassed clients is eminently amateurish, as these employees do not receive any prior training to perform in a more professional way. A relevant academic contribution comes from challenging the preconception that the categories of rapport are mutually exclusive and exhaustive, allowing the initial conceptual framework to be reconfigured as a new category of rapport is included. In practical terms, this research is also distinctive, since it suggests that, as a peculiar locus for embarrassment, pharmacies take these clients’ emotion in a more serious way, searching for ways to mitigate it through better training of salespeople, as this effort may translate into higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
... A mimetização comportamental em negociação facilita o alcance de níveis mais sólidos de concórdia (Maddux et al, 2008), simpatia e rapport (Chartrand e Bargh, 1999). Apesar da mimetização acontecer, habitualmente, de forma automática, a mimetização também pode ser realizada de forma consciente e constituir-se como uma ferramenta eficaz no processo de negociação dado que está associada a uma maior influência comportamental (Jacob et al, 2011). ...
Grande parte do nosso tempo é investido a negociar. A negociação ocorre com colegas, clientes, lideranças, fornecedores e demais stakeholders. Na esfera pessoal também negociamos de forma habitual, por exemplo, onde e quando vamos de férias, como vamos dividir as tarefas domésticas, qual o restaurante em que vamos jantar, etc. A negociação é parte integrante da nossa vida, desde muito novos.
O propósito deste capitulo é ajudar os leitores a compreenderem a importância de diversos aspetos da comunicação não-verbal, no âmbito da negociação, entre os quais:
1. a confiança;
2. a mimetização do comportamento não-verbal;
3. o desconforto e o contágio emocional;
4. a mentira e as micro expressões.
... These elements, including both active and passive social influence factors (Argo and Dahl, 2020), impact how the consumer views the retailer brand. Active social influence factors involve tangible verbal or physical interactions, such as when a salesperson mimics a customer's verbal and non-verbal cues, which increases sales and evaluations of the store and the salesclerk (Jacob et al., 2011). Passive social influences happen without the customer's knowledge or attention, such as crowding in a store. ...
This research highlights the importance of retailer-consumer identity congruence – the match between the retail brand identity and the consumers’ identity. Retailers can leverage identity congruence to forge meaningful consumer-brand relationships which will result in enhanced engagement, brand loyalty, and willingness to pay. The paper discusses how creative merchandise offerings and innovative merchandising strategies contribute to the creation of a unique retail brand identity and facilitate communication of this identity to consumers. Based on interviews with retail practitioners, we formulate five ways in which retailers can establish and communicate their brand identity through creative merchandise offerings (by focusing on unique and original merchandise, leveraging local merchandise to reflect the area, making their merchandise akin to art, offering sustainable merchandise, and a high fashion product assortment). In addition, we focus on five innovative merchandising strategies which help the retailer connect the brand to the customer (creating themes, reflecting the brand story, being playful, signaling exclusivity, and virtual merchandising). We then discuss how retailers can utilize social and technological tools to amplify the retailer identity to consumers, thus increasing the likelihood that a consumer will view their identity congruent with the retail brand.
... Some have gone further and argued that it is the basic building block of all social life [2,10]. The importance of mimicry is evidenced by the number of human sciences that draw upon this concept, including psychology [11], economics [12], and consumer behaviour [13], but also in animal research [14]. ...
Introduction
Do we always do what others do, and, if not, when and under what conditions do we do so? In this paper we test the hypothesis that mimicry is moderated by the mere knowledge of whether the source is a member of the same social category as ourselves.
Methods
We investigated group influence on mimicry using three tasks on a software platform which interfaces with mobile computing devices to allow the controlled study of collective behaviour in an everyday environment.
Results
Overall, participants (N = 965) were influenced by the movements of confederates (represented as dots on a screen) who belonged to their own category in both purposive and incidental tasks.
Conclusion
Our results are compatible with collective level explanations of social influence premised on shared social identification. This includes both a heuristic of unintended mimicry (the acts of group members are diagnostic of how one should act), and communication of affiliation (based on a desire to make one’s group cohesive). The results are incompatible with traditional ‘contagion’ accounts which suggest mimicry is automatic and inevitable. The results have practical implications for designing behavioural interventions which can harness the power of copying behaviour, for example in emergency evacuations.
... Mimicry seems to be a ubiquitous part of human communication (Chartrand, Maddux, & Lakin, 2005), and under most circumstances, it is associated with positive outcomes. These include increased likelihood of prosocial behavior being performed by the mimicked (van Baaren, Holland, Kawakami, & van Knippenberg, 2004), greater liking and rapport felt by the mimicked toward the mimicker (Gu eguen, 2009), and greater tips gained by a mimicking waitress (Jacob, Gueguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011). ...
Strategic word mimicry during negotiations facilitates better outcomes. We explore mimicry of specific word categories and perceptions of rapport, trust, and liking as underlying mechanisms. Dyads took part in an online negotiation exercise in which word mimicry was manipulated: Participants were instructed to mimic each other’s words (both‐mimic), one participant mimicked the other (half‐mimic), or neither participant mimicked (neither‐mimic). When given a simple instruction to mimic their partner, participants mimicked both the style (personal pronouns, adverbs, linguistic style, interrogative terms) and the content (affiliation terms, power terms, and assents) of their partner’s messages. Mimicry was associated with greater joint and individual points gain and perceptions of rapport from the mimicked partner. Further, mimicry of interrogative terms (e.g., how, why) mediated positive effects of mimicry upon negotiation outcomes, suggesting the coordination of question asking between negotiators is an important strategy to create beneficial interactions and add value in negotiations.
... Positive affect toward customers can improve salespeople's productivity (Sharma and Levy, 2003). Salespeople who mimicked customers' verbal and nonverbal behaviors received more favorable evaluations by customers (Jacob et al., 2011). ...
Purpose — To apply Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to brick-and-mortar salespeople’s
responses to customers’ fear appeals.
Design/methodology/approach — To develop a conceptual model for the effect of customers’ fear appeals on brick-and-mortar salespeople.
Findings — PMT relates to the influence of customers’ fear appeals on brick-and-mortar
salespeople’s behaviours. The salesperson’s decision whether to follow a retail manager’s
suggestion about ways to mitigate a customer’s fear appeal depends on believed threat severity, believed threat susceptibility, response efficacy, self-efficacy, and response costs.
Research implications — PMT is applied to a new domain: brick-and-mortar salespeople.
Although a powerful yet universal emotion, only limited research has examined fear within this group.
Practical implications — Understanding salespeople’s fears will help retail managers identify strategies for encouraging adaptive behaviours and deterring maladaptive behaviours by salespeople.
Originality/value – A model relating customers’ fear appeals to salespeople’s behaviours is introduced.
... For instance, when a social presence shares something in common with a consumer (e.g., a birthday or name) or mimics a consumer verbally or nonverbally, the consumer will feel a greater sense of connectedness and trust with that social presence. This sense of connection can in turn lead to more favorable attitudes and purchase intentions (e.g., Jacob, Gueguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011;Jiang et al., 2010;Woolley & Fishbach, 2017). Beyond incidental similarities and mimicry, the physical proximity of a social presence can also enhance feelings of affiliation. ...
This review synthesizes the social presence literature that has been conducted in consumer psychology over the past decade. It provides a framework for understanding the impact of other buyers and salespeople on a consumer's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The review is structured around three types of social influence: utilitarian, value‐expressive, and informational. Examples of how recent research has explored each type of influence are provided. In addition to integrating the work that has previously been conducted, this review also highlights future research directions for advancing the field's understanding of the role and impact of a social presence on consumers.
... The strength of this effect was emphasized in a similar study that found comparable results with a delayed alignment condition, i.e., when the waitress only repeated the order when she brought the drinks to the table (Jacob & Guéguen, 2013). Similarly, sales showed a significant increase if sales clerks had been aligning on their customers' behavior and speech (Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011). In addition, customers were more likely to adhere to sales clerks' advice and evaluated them more positively if they had been mimicked. ...
... Mimickers are liked more by mimickees (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999;Kulesza et al., 2015), are more persuasive (Tanner, Ferraro, Chartrand, Bettman, & van Baaren, 2008), and are perceived as more attractive (Guéguen, 2009). Mimickers receive more help (van Baaren, Holland, Kawakami, & van Knippenberg, 2004) and trust (Guéguen, Martin, Meineri, & Simon, 2013;Swaab, Maddux, & Sinaceur, 2011), are granted higher tips in restaurant settings (van Baaren, Holland, Steenaert, & van Knippenberg, 2003), and ultimately sell more to mimicked customers (Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011;Kulesza, Szypowska, Jarman, & Dolinski, 2014). ...
In an experiment conducted in natural settings (in a restaurant), we explore the uninvestigated link between mimicry, its impact on hospitality, and the time during which the mimicry takes place. Under particular experimental conditions, the waitress either did not verbally mimic the customer, mimicked the customer only at the initial stage of the interaction, only at the final stage of the interaction, or at both the initial and the final stage of the interaction. The tip left by the customer and its amount were the indicators of the hospitality experienced throughout the time spent in the restaurant. The outcome was that both indicators of noticeable hospitality were the highest where the verbal mimicry was applied twice.
... It has long been observed that head gestures, such as nodding, increase the opportunities for a person to be liked (Gifford et al., 1985;McGovern et al., 1979), while the occurrence of mirroring is an early predictor of acceptance (Farley, 2014;Guéguen et al., 2009;Jacob et al., 2011;Van Baaren et al., 2003). Our results show that it is possible to predict whether the visually impaired person is using the SAA, based on the measurements obtained by the computer vision system, and the satisfaction in the conversation, based on the written questionnaire. ...
Visual impairment affects the normal course of activities in everyday life including mobility, education, employment, and social interaction. Most of the existing technical solutions devoted to empowering the visually impaired people are in the areas of navigation (obstacle avoidance), access to printed information and object recognition. Less effort has been dedicated so far in developing solutions to support social interactions. In this paper, we introduce a Social-Aware Assistant (SAA) that provides visually impaired people with cues to enhance their face-to-face conversations. The system consists of a perceptive component (represented by smartglasses with an embedded video camera) and a feedback component (represented by a haptic belt). When the vision system detects a head nodding, the belt vibrates, thus suggesting the user to replicate (mirror) the gesture. In our experiments, sighted persons interacted with blind people wearing the SAA. We instructed the former to mirror the noddings according to the vibratory signal, while the latter interacted naturally. After the face-to-face conversation, the participants had an interview to express their experience regarding the use of this new technological assistant. With the data collected during the experiment, we have assessed quantitatively and qualitatively the device usefulness and user satisfaction.
... In addition, people are more likely to disclose intimate information (Guéguen, Martin, Meineri, & Simon, 2013) or give honest answers (Guéguen, 2013) to a confederate who mimicks them. Mimickers are also rated as being more persuasive than non-mimickers (Bailenson & Yee, 2005;Drury & van Swol, 2005;van Swol, 2003), and may sometimes be more successful in swaying people to agree with their opinion (Bailenson & Yee, 2005, but see van Swol, 2003 or to consume and purchase goods (Herrmann, Rossberg, Huber, Landwehr, & Henkel, 2011;Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011;Tanner, Ferraro, Chartrand, Bettman, & Baaren, 2008). Furthermore, mimicry can improve negotiation outcomes (Maddux et al., 2008): ...
Without realising it, people unconsciously mimic each other’s postures, gestures and mannerisms. This ‘chameleon effect’ is thought to play an important role in creating affiliation, rapport and trust. Existing theories propose that mimicry is used as a social strategy to bond with other members of our social groups. There is strong behavioural and neural evidence for the strategic control of mimicry. However, evidence that mimicry leads to positive social outcomes is less robust. In this thesis, I aimed to rigorously test the prediction that mimicry leads to rapport and trust, using novel virtual reality methods with high experimental control. In the first study, we developed a virtual reality task for measuring implicit trust behaviour in a virtual maze. Across three experiments we demonstrated the suitability of this task over existing economic games for measuring trust towards specific others. In the second and third studies we tested the effects of mimicry from virtual characters whose other social behaviours were tightly controlled. In the second study, we found that virtual mimicry significantly increased rapport and this was not affected by the precise time delay in mimicking. In the third study we found this result was not replicated using a strict, pre-registered design, and the effects of virtual mimicry did not change depending on the ingroup or outgroup status of the mimicker. In the fourth study we went beyond mimicry to explore new ways of modelling coordinated behaviour as it naturally occurs in social interactions. We used high-resolution motion capture to record motion in dyadic conversations and calculated levels of coordination using wavelet analysis. We found a reliable pattern of decoupling as well as coordination in people’s head movements. I discuss how the findings of our experiments relate to theories about the social function of mimicry and suggest directions for future research.
... Although MM and PHM levels were not shown to have a significant relationship, future research using alternate methodologies and experimental structures was advised. Many researchers have concluded indications of rapport with synchronic movement between interlocutors [21], [22], [23], [24], [7], [25]. Thus outcomes in this study merit further investigation into the relationship between rapport-building tactics and homophily levels. ...
Homophily is the tendency for people to associate disproportionately with others who are perceived to be similar. The term is used to explain phenomena in group socialization and agreement. This study was designed using the Perceived Homophily Measure (PHM) as a metric for measuring rapport in leadership socialization. Matching and mirroring (MM), a rapport-building tactic was tested quantitatively for its relationship to PHM. The study was grounded in the social identity theory, the social presence theory, the leader-member exchange theory, and the similarity-attraction paradigm. The quasi-experiment was conducted at Workforce Solutions North Texas in Wichita Falls using 2 groups. Participants in the test group, composed of employees and clients, conversed with an MM-coached candidate. Participants in the control group, composed of general public participants, conversed with an uncoached candidate from the general public. A post-test using the attitude homophily scale produced PHM as the dependent variable with MM as the independent treatment variable. Kinect® sensors detected joint-angle synchrony using specialized software to differentiate between the coached candidate and the uncoached candidate. It was assumed that the coached candidate would likely produce greater instances of synchrony. After adjusting for covariates of age, gender, ethnicity, height, eyeglasses , hobbies, and professions, no statistically significant difference was found between groups on PHM levels. It was determined that the use of two candidates weakened the study. Thus, further research was needed to determine the relationship between MM and PHM. Nevertheless, considering PHM as a metric for rapport inception represented a significant breakthrough in socialization metrics.
... Although MM and PHM levels were not shown to have a significant relationship, future research using alternate methodologies and experimental structures was advised. Many researchers have concluded indications of rapport with synchronic movement between interlocutors [21], [22], [23], [24], [7], [25]. Thus outcomes in this study merit further investigation into the relationship between rapport-building tactics and homophily levels. ...
Homophily is the tendency for people to associate disproportionately with others who are perceived to be similar. The term is used to explain phenomena in group socialization and agreement. This study was designed using the Perceived Homophily Measure (PHM) as a metric for measuring rapport in leadership socialization. Matching and mirroring (MM), a rapport-building tactic was tested quantitatively for its relationship to PHM. The study was grounded in the social identity theory, the social presence theory, the leader-member exchange theory, and the similarity-attraction paradigm. The quasi-experiment was conducted at Workforce Solutions North Texas in Wichita Falls using 2 groups. Participants in the test group, composed of employees and clients, conversed with an MM-coached candidate. Participants in the control group, composed of general public participants, conversed with an uncoached candidate from the general public. A post-test using the attitude homophily scale produced PHM as the dependent variable with MM as the independent treatment variable. Kinect® sensors detected joint-angle synchrony using specialized software to differentiate between the coached candidate and the uncoached candidate. It was assumed that the coached candidate would likely produce greater instances of synchrony. After adjusting for covariates of age, gender, ethnicity, height, eyeglasses , hobbies, and professions, no statistically significant difference was found between groups on PHM levels. It was determined that the use of two candidates weakened the study. Thus, further research was needed to determine the relationship between MM and PHM. Nevertheless, considering PHM as a metric for rapport inception represented a significant breakthrough in socialization metrics.
... These studies (Guéguen, Jacob, & Boulbry, 2007;Gustafsson, 2004;Hansen, Jensen, & Gustafsson, 2005) found that suggestions from waiting staff, both male and female, to order a certain dish, actually lead restaurant customers selecting that particular (target) dish more often. Similar results were found by Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, and Boulbry (2011) among retail salespeople. They concluded that mimicry of verbal expressions and non-verbal behaviour of the customers had positive effects on sales rates, greater compliance to the salespeople's suggestions and better customer evaluation of both the salespeople and the retail store. ...
Verbal communication is the main form of personal interaction. This article presents evidence for the positive role of service staff’s verbalized hospitality on consumer behaviour. The principal aim of the study was to explore the effect of verbal attention on making additional purchases and tipping behaviour in three different countries (Sweden, England, and Serbia). Moreover, research investigated whether server gender, customer gender, and group size moderate the relationship between verbal attention, additional purchase, and tipping behaviour. For the purpose of the study, servers in casual dining restaurants either paid special verbal attention to group diners, or did not do so, before asking target questions. The results show that group diners in verbal attention conditions make additional purchases and leave tips more often. While group size moderates the relationship between verbal attention and additional purchase and tipping behaviour, such role was not confirmed in the case of server gender and customer gender. The theoretical and practical implications of verbal interaction between servers and customers are discussed, as well as differences in three analysed countries.
... Another study providing evidence for the power of verbal mimicry was carried out in a real-world retail setting by C. Jacob et al., (2011). In this case, sales clerks in a large store specializing in the sale of household appliances either engaged in verbal and nonverbal mimicry of customers who approached them for advice or did not. ...
This paper shed a light into recently investigated phenomena, mimicry and its genesis.
Mimicking, that is showing the same nonverbal and verbal behavior as one’s interaction partner.
This phenomena is a real working mechanism that allows people to become successful in all
kind of relationships, such as: family (kids-parents and spouses relations), friends, work team
and business. The causes that leading to occurrence of mimicry are described, among which the
nature of human beings which develops in society, and the need to maintain relationships as a
fundamental basic for them. The article provides an analysis of theoretical and experimental
studies of mimicry starting with Western thinker, such as S.Freud, who considered mimicry as
an important element in communication of affective states, to modern scientists, whose
experiments showed the various facets of mimicry including neuroscience data. The paper
describes designs of several experiments that were conducted close to ecological (natural)
situations with naive participants, who did not suspect that they had been taken part in
experiment. This emphasize the validity of results, as laboratory conditions might influence the
validity of outcomes. The experiments took place in Western countries, the domestic science,
especially Kazakhstan, did not conduct such kind of experiments.
The article shows peculiarities of experiment designs that might encourage our domestic
scientists to developing researches and switch from theoretical to empirical development of
domestic psychology science. The literature review contains both pioneers, who started
mimicry researches and modern scientists’ studies where the reader can take ideas and
implement the findings into the practice as a student, teacher and scientist.
In the conclusion, authors emphasized the important role of mimicry in productive social
adaptation or another words, the role in successful life maintaining, in the aspect of relationships
with others. Furthermore, authors hypothesize that mimicry might be one of the predictors of
people’s well-being.
... were not) mimicked by salespeople [44][45]. ...
... Yes, of course", instead of just saying "Yes of course". When reflecting the customer's words the sales person has a higher chance of making the sale [Jacob et al., 2011, Kulesza et al., 2013. The same effect can also be seen when used by waiters and waitresses. ...
... CAT is a well-known theory in communication (Giles, 2008) which posits that people adjust their verbal and non-verbal behavior to be more or less similar to others' in order to minimize or maximize their social difference (Shepard et al., 2001). Research has provided evidence of communication accommodation in a variety of everyday interactions (Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011;Guéguen, 2009). For example, a study by Tanner, Ferraro, Chartrand, Bettman, and Van Baaren (2008) showed that the final rating of a product in a product-review scenario is influenced by whether or not the interviewer mimics the participant's verbal and non-verbal behavior. ...
The syntax and semantics of human language can illuminate many individual psychological differences and important dimensions of social interaction. Accordingly, psychological and psycholinguistic research has begun incorporating sophisticated representations of semantic content to better understand the connection between word choice and psychological processes. In this work we introduce ConversAtion level Syntax SImilarity Metric (CASSIM), a novel method for calculating conversation-level syntax similarity. CASSIM estimates the syntax similarity between conversations by automatically generating syntactical representations of the sentences in conversation, estimating the structural differences between them, and calculating an optimized estimate of the conversation-level syntax similarity. After introducing and explaining this method, we report results from two method validation experiments (Study 1) and conduct a series of analyses with CASSIM to investigate syntax accommodation in social media discourse (Study 2). We run the same experiments using two well-known existing syntactic metrics, LSM and Coh-Metrix, and compare their results to CASSIM. Overall, our results indicate that CASSIM is able to reliably measure syntax similarity and to provide robust evidence of syntax accommodation within social media discourse.
... Thus, the positive relational effects of mimicry extend beyond the interacting partners to include those who are not involved in the interaction. Finally, researchers (Bailenson & Yee, 2005;Herrmann, Rossberg, Huber, Landwehr, & Henkel, 2011;Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011;van Swol, 2003) have found that mimickers are rated as more persuasive than nonmimickers and more successful in a negotiation (Swaab, Maddux, & Sinaceur, 2011) and a mediation if mimicry occurs over an extensive interaction (Fischer-Lokou et al., 2014). Mimicry, therefore, serves a useful purpose in propagating relationships and prosocial behaviors, even to strangers. ...
People often mimic each other. Research has examined the positive social benefits of mimicry and factors that lead to increased mimicry. Two studies examine whether a participant is more likely to mimic nonverbal behavior of someone who shares the same opinion as the participant than someone who does not. The participant made a decision between two vacation destinations and discussed the choice in a three-person group. The two other group members were confederates. One agreed with the participant’s choice and one disagreed. Each confederate emitted a different nonverbal behavior consistently throughout discussion. Results offer some support to the hypothesis that the participant would be more likely to mimic nonverbal behavior of the confederate who is in agreement with the participant.
... From a theoretical standpoint, this study is expected to enrich the existing literature on the role of social cues of shopping environment in affecting customers' behavioral responses. This can be summarized in the following ways: firstly, unlike the majority of prior empirical studies (Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011;Jani & Han, 2014;Mehta, Sharma, & Swami, 2013;Söderlund, 2011;Yan et al., 2011), this study examines the effect of social cues as a holistic concept rather than focusing on its individual components such as human crowdedness, employees, and other customers. Secondly, the present study uniquely integrates three different theories of customer behavior into one comprehensive framework to gain a greater understanding on how social cues affect customer buying behavior. ...
This paper investigates the effect of social cues in a mall’s shopping environment on customer behavior. Two competing mediation scenarios are assessed: emotion-cognition and cognition-emotion in a stimulus-organism-response (SOR)-based framework. Although the role of social cues in driving customer behavior in shopping contexts is largely addressed in the extant literature, the mechanism of the effect is still under-researched area and this study is an attempt to fill this gap.The conceptual model is validated through a questionnaire survey of 1028 shopping mall customers from three cities in Jordan. Two different conceptual models are tested. The analysis reveals that the cognition-emotion mediated model is more robust in predicting the effect of social cues than emotion-cognition mediated model. The findings indicate that a) social cues have a significant positive effect on customers’ emotion of pleasure; cognition; and behavioral response; and b) only pleasure and cognition mediate the effect of social cues on customers’ behavioral response.Theoretically, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the mechanism by which customers’ emotions and cognition mediate the effect of social cues on customer behavior; and practically, it asserts the significance of social cues as a marketing tool.
... Being mimicked can bias consumer decisions by increasing persuasiveness and rapport. For instance, restaurant guests give larger tips when being mimicked by the service person (van Baaren, Holland, Steеnaert, & van Krippenberg, 2003), and customers are more likely to comply with the suggestions of a mimicking salesperson (Jacob, Guéguen, Martin, & Boulbry, 2011). Similarly, the success of launching new (and potentially superior) products may not only depend on objective criteria like functionality and price but also on mimicry effects on liking (Tanner, Ferraro, Chartrand, Bettman, & Van Baaren, 2014). ...
Implementation intentions (Gollwitzer, 1993, 1999, 2014) are if-then plans that help individuals attain their goals. Implementation intentions have proven beneficial in various domains in which individuals fall short of attaining their goals, from health behavior through academic achievement to interpersonal issues (for reviews, see Adriaanse, Vinkers, De Ridder, Hox, & De Wit, 2011; Bélanger-Gravel, Godin, & Amireault, 2013; Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006; Gollwitzer, 2014; Hagger & Luszczynska, 2014). The aim of this chapter is to present research on how implementation intentions influence the affective, cognitive and conative components of consumer behavior. We outline the nature of implementation intentions and describe moderators and mediators identified in previous research. Next, we adopt the perspective of comprehensive models of consumer behavior (e.g., Bettman, 1979; Blackwell, Miniard, & Engel, 2006; Howard & Sheth, 1969) and systematically review implementation intention effects along the lines of these models. Specifically, we describe how implementation intentions affect information acquisition (i.e., perception, processing and comprehension), components of the decision process (i.e., pre- and post-decisional evaluation) and internal and external influences on behavior (i.e., affect, norms, priming and mimicry) in consumer context. We conclude by outlining topics for future research on implementation intentions in the domain of consumer behavior.
REASONS AND EXPECTATIONS OF CUSTOMERS TOWARDS SHAMPOO BRANDS
Unconscious influences permeate the everyday life of consumers. The scope of unconscious influences is greatly enhanced when the operational definition of “unconscious” shifts from the anachronistic “subliminal” one—whether the person is aware of the triggering information itself—to the far more common situation of being unaware of the influence of that stimulus. People are often unaware of how external events influence their choices and behavior, which is a good reason not to rely on self‐report measures of mediating internal mental processes. What are the main forms of mundane unconscious influence? (1) The person's primary evolved needs and motives and active goal pursuits, which operate unconsciously to exert a transformative effect on selective attention, preferences, and purchases, and consumption. These can be triggered through common external means such as grocery store handouts and emails from the boss. (2) Immediate preconscious perceptual inputs from the external environment influence seemingly “free” conscious choices. Finally, (3) postconscious processes have the same effects but come from the carry‐over of conscious experiences from one situation into the next. This is the domain of “nudges” or “priming effects” with many field studies as well as meta‐analyses demonstrating their validity and replicability.
This paper presents the investigation and analysis of speech accommodation effects in data obtained from Spanish learners of German with varying proficiency levels. The production data were recorded during a collaborative map task of the Spanish learners of German among each other and with a native speaker of German. The map task was designed to target words and phrases with specific segmental and suprasegmental characteristics. These characteristics were derived from contrastive analyses of Spanish and German. The main objectives of the paper were to investigate whether segmental and suprasegmental characteristics of the target language German are affected by phonetic accommodation to varying degrees and whether these differences depend on the proficiency level of the speaker or the interlocutor. The statistical analysis, using regression analyses, revealed inconsistent accommodation effects across learners of different proficiency levels as well as different linguistic phenomena. In line with previous findings the results can best be accounted for by an adaptation of a dynamic system approach.
Current information security behavior research assumes that lone individuals make a rational, informed decision about security technologies based on careful consideration of personally available information. We challenge this assumption by examining how the herd behavior influences users’ security decisions when coping with security threats. The results show that uncertainty about a security technology leads users to discount their own information and imitate others. We found that imitation tendency has a more substantial effect on security decisions than the personal perceived efficacy of the security technology. It is essential for researchers and managers to consider how the herd behavior effect influences users' security decisions.
Numerous studies in the marketing literature focused on consumer behavior in general, but relatively few studies have examined Impulse purchase behavior (IPB). Although few studies examined IPB, the vast majority of the studies were conducted using the cross-sectional design. These studies suffer from certain limitations like random measurement error, common method bias, causality & validity-related issues that are inherently associated with the cross-sectional design. Despite these limitations, very few studies have examined the IPB using the longitudinal design. Multilevel structural equation modeling (ML-SEM) is conducted in the study to analyze the longitudinal data for examining the changes in the causal effects of the factors influencing the shoppers' IPB over a period of time. Additionally, structural equation modeling (SEM) is conducted to examine changes in the causal effects of the factors influencing IPB at each time point of data collection. Drawing upon the stern's model and stimulus-organism-response model, the study examines the causal effects of the factors influencing the IPB. The results of ML-SEM indicate significant fluctuations in the factors influencing IPB over time. Similarly, the results of SEM indicates that few factors (like store ambience and salesperson interactions) have shown a significant influence on IPB in the initial time points (i.e., during the initial store visits of shoppers), but became insignificant over a period of time in their subsequent store visits. The findings suggest that the store crowd, secondary customers influence, and in-store promotions show a significant influence on the IPB, compared to the store ambience and salesperson interactions.
The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation—if the author may use that biological term—that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. This chapter addresses disruptive innovation in the 21st century and how new ventures that might produce such innovation in Oceania and Asia can obtain the funds they need to survive and prosper.
The concept of utility is used as a decision tool for consumers to choose a commodity. Analyzing consumer behavior is complicated due to the qualitative nature of the utility. Hence, this paper investigates a quantitative method to evaluate the utility of consumers. The methodology is based on linguistic expressions of fuzzy logic. Initially, the authors identify different parameters being effective on utility of a consumer. Then, using fuzzy linguistic expressions the quantitative value of utility are determined. Also some statistical analyses are set to investigate the effective parameters on the utility. Consequently, the optimization is done applying mathematical nonlinear programming. Some analysis is performed as sensitivity study. A case study is conducted to verify the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methodology.
Bu makalede, satış sürecinde satış elemanlarının karşı tarafta algılanan ses
özelliğinin müşterinin satın alma eğilimi üzerinde bir etkisinin olup olmadığı ve bunun
güven üzerinden yönelip yönelmediği araştırılmaktadır. Müşteri ile kurulan iki taraflı
iletişim sürecinde müşteriye aktarılan ürün bilgisinin ve teknik özelliklerin ötesinde,
firmanın bir temsilcisi olarak müşteride yaratılan algı önemlidir. Bu algının iyi
yönetilmesi kuşkusuz satışın başarısını artıracaktır. Müşterinin satın alma davranışı
temelde ikna olmayı gerektirdiğinden güven etkili bir ikna yaratıcı ardıldır. Güven ise
teknik aktarım ile satış elemanını iletişim etkinliğinin bir sonucudur. Ses özellikleri de
sözsüz ve güven yaratıcı bir özellik olarak ele alınmaktadır. Bu kapsamda araştırmanın
temel araştırma sorusu bilişsel ve duygusal güven unsurlarının, satış elemanlarının ses
özellikleri üzerindeki aracı etkileriyle satın alma niyetine olan etkilerini incelemektir.
Araştırmada satış elemanlarının doğrudan satış programlarındaki sunumlarından alınan
ses kayıtları cevaplayıcılara dinletilmiş ve ses özelliklerine ilişkin değerlendirmeleri
alınmıştır. Yapılan çalışma sonucunda satış elemanlarının ses özelliklerinin tüketicilerin
satın alma niyetini bilişsel güven ve duygusal güven aracılığıyla pozitif etkilediği ve bu
iki güven unsurunun kurulan modelde kısmi aracı olarak çalıştığı ortaya konmuştur.
Ayrıca bilişsel güven unsurunun satın alma niyetine olan pozitif etkisinin duygusal
güvenden daha yüksek olduğu belirlenmiştir.
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of cognitive
and emotional trust on the relationship between the perceived voice specifications of the
salesperson and the purchase intentions of the customer. Beyond the product
information and technical specifications transferred to the customer, the perception
created by the salesperson as a representative of the company is also important during
the communication process. A successful management of this process will increase the
success of the sales for sure. Trust is an effective persuasive successor, as the
persuasion process is at the heart of the customer's buying behavior and reliabity is a
result of salespersons communication effectiveness. In this context, voice specifications
are considered as a non-verbal clue, which creates trust. The main research question of
the article is to examine the mediating effect of cognitive and emotional trust factors on
the relationship between consumers purchase intention and the voice specification of
salesperson. The results of the study indicate that that the salespersons voice
specifications positively effects consumers' purchase intention through cognitive trust
and emotional trust factors, and these two factors worked as a partial mediator in the
structural model. Moreover, the positive effect of the cognitive trust on the purchase
intention was found higher than the emotional trust.
Nonconscious mimicry is a salient behaviour in many social interactions, such as the imitation of accent over the phone or the tendency to return a smile from another smiling person. However, existing research has yet to consider the importance of individuals' social intentions when entering into a social interaction in a customer service setting. This paper extends current managerial leadership theory into the novel setting of nonconscious mimicry to explain the critical role of social intentions in relationship building in customer service encounters. This research consists of a 3 × 2 between-subjects factorial design to evaluate the hypothesised relationships between nonconscious mimicry, social intentions, and product choice behaviour. The findings indicate that social intentions play a critical role influencing the relationship between nonconscious mimicry and product consumption, purchase intentions, and product liking in service encounters. Further, it is suggested that individuals identified as task-oriented should not be behaviourally imitated, as this will not positively increase product liking, purchase intentions, or product consumption. Instead, consumers should be primed to be relationship-oriented prior to nonconscious mimicry.
Communication accommodation theory predicts that social power plays an important role in influencing communicative behaviors. Previous research suggests these effects extend to linguistic style, thought to be a non-conscious aspect of communication. Here, we explore if these effects hold when individuals converse using a medium limited in personal cues, computer-mediated-communication (CMC). We manipulated social power in instant messaging conversations and measured subsequent interpersonal impressions. Low power induced greater likelihood of linguistic style accommodation, across between- (Study 1) and within-subjects (Study 2) experiments. Accommodation by those in a low power role had no impact on impressions formed by their partner. In contrast, linguistic style accommodation by individuals in a high-power role was associated with negative interpersonal impressions formed by their lower power partner. The results show robust effects of power in shaping language use across CMC. Further, the interpersonal effects of linguistic accommodation depend upon the conversational norms of the social context.
The “chameleon effect” refers to the tendency to adopt the postures, gestures, and mannerisms of interaction partners (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). This type of mimicry occurs outside of conscious awareness, and without any intent to mimic or imitate. Empirical evidence suggests a bi-directional relationship between nonconscious mimicry on the one hand, and liking, rapport, and affiliation on the other. That is, nonconscious mimicry creates affiliation, and affiliation can be expressed through nonconscious mimicry. We argue that mimicry played an important role in human evolution. Initially, mimicry may have had survival value by helping humans communicate. We propose that the purpose of mimicry has now evolved to serve a social function. Nonconscious behavioral mimicry increases affiliation, which serves to foster relationships with others. We review current research in light of this proposed framework and suggest future areas of research.
Service organizations are continually looking for ways to increase customer loyalty. Although loyalty to tangible goods (i.e., brand loyalty) has been studied extensively by marketing scholars, relatively little theoretical or empirical research has examined loyalty to service organizations (i.e., service loyalty). This study extends previous loyalty research by examining service loyalty and factors expected to influence its development. In particular, a literature review is combined with analysis of qualitative data from over forty depth interviews to develop a model of service loyalty that includes t hree antecedents))satisfaction, switching costs, and interpersonal bonds.
This research examines the benefits customers receive as a result of engaging in long-term relational exchanges with service
firms. Findings from two studies indicate that consumer relational benefits can be categorized into three distinct benefit
types: confidence, social, and special treatment benefits. Confidence benefits are received more and rated as more important
than the other relational benefits by consumers, followed by social and special treatment benefits, respectively. Responses
segmented by type of service business show a consistent pattern with respect to customer rankings of benefit importance. Management
implications for relational strategies and future research implications of the findings are discussed.
In this study, we hypothesize and empirically test the proposition that interpersonal bonds, or relationships between employees and customers, can significantly influence positive word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. Such influence may be especially true for many services, particularly in situations where a relationship has developed between the customer and individual service providers. In this study we look at four dimensions of interpersonal bonds: trust, care, rapport, and familiarity. We contend that as a customer’s trust increases in a specific employee (or employees), positive WOM communication about the organization is more likely to increase and such trust is a consequence of three other interpersonal relationship dimensions: a personal connection between employees and customers, care displayed by employees, and employee familiarity with customers. These propositions are investigated using data collected from bank customers and dental patients, and we find empirical support for all but one of our hypotheses. A key finding is that the presence of interpersonal relationships between employees and customers is significantly correlated with customer WOM behavior. We conclude with a discussion of how interpersonal relationships between customers and employees might be fostered in order to increase the likelihood of customer WOM behavior.
Recent studies have found that mimicking the verbal and nonverbal behavior of strangers enhances their liking of the individual who mimicked them. An experiment was carried out in two bars during six sessions of speed dating for which young women confederates volunteered to mimic or not some verbal expressions and nonverbal behaviors of a man for 5 minutes. Data revealed that the men evaluated the dating interaction more positively when the woman mimicked them, and that mimicry was associated with a higher evaluation score of the relation and the sexual attractiveness of the woman. Mimicry appears to influence perceptions of physical attributes in addition to personal and social attributes.
360 psychology students were divided into 12 experimental groups and participated in a single experimental session. The yawn-evoking potency of variations in a 5-min series of 30 videotaped repetitions of a yawning face were compared with each other and with a series of 30 videotaped smiles to determine the ethological releasing stimulus for the fixed-action pattern of yawning and to understand the more general process of face detection. Animate video images of yawning faces in several axial orientations evoked yawns in more Ss than did featureless or smiling faces, and no single feature, such as a gaping mouth, was necessary to evoke yawns. The yawn recognition mechanism is neither axially specific nor triggered by an isolated facial feature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The literature relevant to talk and silence sequences in informal social conversations is reviewed in terms of individual consistency in talk and silence across and within conversations, the factors which can modify talk and silence consistencies, and the influence of partners’ talk and silence behaviors on the other's response. The review leads to the postulation of four models of talk-silence sequences of increasing complexity and decreasing parsimony. The Markov model describes within-conversation sequences; the Independent Decision (ID) model describes across-conversation sequences under the assumptions of perfect consistency and independence of action; the Incremental model relaxes the consistency assumption of the ID model; the Regulation model relaxes both assumptions of the ID model, incorporating the possibility of mutual influence between partners rather than independence.
Here is the reference for this chapter.
MacKinnon, D. P., Cheong, J., Pirlott, A. G. (2012) In Cooper, H., Camic, P. M., Long, D. L., Panter, A. T., Rindskopf, D., Sher, K. J. (Eds.) (2012). APA handbook of research methods in psychology, Vol 2: Research designs: Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological, and biological., (pp. 313-331). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Two experiments investigated the impact of group membership on non-conscious behavioral mimicry. Female participants viewed videotapes of female confederates who rubbed their faces whilst describing a picture. The extent to which the participant mimicked this face rubbing behavior was assessed from video footage taken using a hidden video-camera. Experiment 1 showed greater mimicry of a member of an in-group than of a member of an out-group. Experiment 2 showed both explicit and implicit liking of a target group to predict the extent of mimicry of a member of that group. There was a positive relationship between implicit liking and mimicry but a negative relationship between explicit liking and mimicry. Results are discussed in terms of processes underlying mimicry.
The impact of facial control on subjective reactions to dubbed (created with inserts of smiling people) and undubbed comedy routines was examined. The presence of dubs increased EMG activity over thezygomaticus major andorbicularis oculi muscle regions for spontaneous-condition subjects, but not for inhibit-condition subjects. Analyses also showed that spontaneous-condition subjects exhibited increased smiling at dub points, a finding that is consistent with the notion that subjects mimicked the inserted facial displays. Self-report findings revealed that spontaneous-condition subjects reported significantly greater amusement to the dubbed compared with the undubbed routines, whereas inhibit-condition subjects' self-reports of amusement did not differentiate dub conditions. Furthermore, spontaneous-condition subjects reported significantly more amusement to the dubbed routines than did inhibit-condition subjects. Despite strong facial control effects on facial EMG activity, no main effect of facial condition on self-reported amusement was found, and therefore, the data provide no support for a general version of facial feedback theory. The data are consistent with the view that mimetic responses enhanced subjective reactions, and they are compatible with the Leventhal and Tomkins versions of facial feedback theory.
Using two methods, three measures, and data covering a large number of categories, we present findings on the respondent-assessed impact of positive and negative word of mouth (PWOM, NWOM) on brand purchase probability.For familiar brands, we find that:1.The impact of PWOM is generally greater than NWOM. The pre-WOM probability of purchase tends to be below 0.5, which gives more latitude for PWOM to increase purchase probability than for NWOM to reduce it.2.The impact of both PWOM and NWOM is strongly related to the pre-WOM probability of purchase, the strength of expression of the WOM, and whether the WOM is about the respondent's preferred brand.3.PWOM and NWOM appear to be similar forms of advice-giving behavior, except for their opposed effects on choice.4.Respondents resist NWOM on brands they are very likely to choose, and resist PWOM on brands they are very unlikely to choose.In the Discussion section, we show how our methods could be used to construct a word-of-mouth metric.
Tactile behavior is a basic communication form as well as an expression of interpersonal involvement. This article presents three studies offering evidence for the positive role of casual interpersonal touch on consumer behavior. More specifically, it provides initial support for the view that tactile stimulation in various consumer behavior situations enhances the positive feeling for and evaluation of both the external stimuli and the touching source. Further, customers touched by a requester tend to comply more than customers in no-touch conditions. Implications for consumer behavior theory and research are discussed. Copyright 1992 by the University of Chicago.
A field experiment focused on some implication of interpersonal touch not explored in earlier research. Conceptually, the research included measuring the effects of touch over a relatively long time frame, for a broad range of response dimensions, and in a nonreactive setting characterized by dependency. On an applied level, the research studied the value of touch as a concomitant of nurse-patient interactions. Specifically, a 2 (touch vs. no touch) X 2 (male vs. female) between-subjects design assessed the effects of nurses touching patients, during preoperative teaching, on patient affective, evaluative, behavioral, and physiological responses. Results indicated that female subjects in the touch condition experienced more favorable affective, behavioral, and physiological reactions than a no-touch control group. In contrast, males in the touch condition reacted more negatively than control subjects on these dimensions.
Two studies demonstrated that strategic behavioral mimicry facilitates negotiations. In Study 1 negotiators who mimicked their opponents secured better individual and joint outcomes. In Study 2, mimicry increased the likelihood of an interest-based deal in a negotiation with a negative bargaining zone. Interpersonal trust was found to mediate this effect.
Mutual touching or tactile behavior has traditionally been associated with interpersonal involvement. Several studies suggest that touching fadtates perceptions of liking and trustworthiness. Mehrabian, for example, observed that body contact is a signal of lilung and acceptance (Mehrabian, 1971). Aguilera reported that nurses who touch their patients received more verbal interaction than nurses who did not (Aguilera, 1967). Pattison reported that female undergraduates who were touched in a counseling interview engaged in more self-exploration than those who were not touched in counseling sessions (Mehrabian, 1971). Moreover, touching has encouraged positive feelings about one's external stimd as well as the touch source (Fisher, Rytting, & Heslin, 1976; Silverthorne, McKlewright, O'Donnell, & Gibson, 1976). Further, people who are touched by a requestor tend to agree more often with a request and will do favors more eagerly (Kleinke, 1977). Finally, Mehrabian suggests that persons who initiate touch are more likely to be attributed higher status (1971). Each day, thousands of flight attendants serve passengers on airline flights across the United States. In addition to food service, the attendants assist with seating, provide safety briefings, and endeavor to develop a professional, trustworthy, and credible rapport with passengers. The Federal Aviation Administration (1980) requires flight attendants as emergency evacuation personnel, so it is important that they appear as competent and trustworthy. Few other professions are as demanding regarding interpersonal communication skills. Since touch behavior has been observed to enhance certain functional-professional interactions between people, its effect on airline passengers' perceptions was considered worthy of examination, not only from the stand
Investigated whether a counselor who was mirror imaging a congruent arm and leg position of a client would significantly increase the client's perception of the counselor's level of empathy over the level of the client's perception when the counselor did not mirror image congruent arm and leg position. 80 high school juniors met individually with a counselor for 15 min to discuss career plans. Three variables were controlled for: counselor's direct body orientation, position of counselor's head, and empathy level of the counselor's verbal responses. The dependent variable was the Empathy subscale of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory. ANOVA results showed that clients rated the counselor as having a significantly greater level of empathy in the congruent than in the noncongruent condition. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
The chameleon effect refers to nonconscious mimicry of the postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, and other behaviors of one's interaction partners, such that one's behavior passively rind unintentionally changes to match that of others in one's current social environment. The authors suggest that the mechanism involved is the perception-behavior link, the recently documented finding (e.g., J. A. Bargh, M. Chen, & L. Burrows, 1996) that the mere perception of another' s behavior automatically increases the likelihood of engaging in that behavior oneself Experiment 1 showed that the motor behavior of participants unintentionally matched that of strangers with whom they worked on a task. Experiment 2 had confederates mimic the posture and movements of participants and showed that mimicry facilitates the smoothness of interactions and increases liking between interaction partners. Experiment 3 showed that dispositionally empathic individuals exhibit the chameleon effect to a greater extent than do other people.
A longitudinal design was used to explore the relation between a measure of nonverbal synchrony and self-report indications of rapport in a sample of college classrooms. Results show that posture sharing and rapport are positively related and that this relation is significant across time. Application of the cross-lag panel technique revealed no significant difference, but the direction of the effect suggests the hypothesis that posture sharing may be influential in establishing rapport.
Airline flight attendants' touching of 158 passengers on the shoulder or forearm increased their liking of the 4 attendants and the airline in general and also their perceived flight safety.
For consumers, evaluation of a service firm often depends on evaluation of the "service encounter" or the period of time when the customer interacts directly with the firm. Knowledge of the factors that influence customer evaluations in service encounters is therefore critical, particularly at a time when general perceptions of service quality are declining. The author presents a model for understanding service encounter evaluation that synthesizes consumer satisfaction, services marketing, and attribution theories. A portion of the model is tested experimentally to assess the effects of physical surroundings and employee responses (explanations and offers to compensate) on attributions and satisfaction in a service failure context.
Two experiments investigated the moderation of behavioral mimicry effects as a function of the to-be-mimicked target. In each experiment participants completed an ice cream taste test in the presence of a confederate who was instructed to either eat a lot of ice cream (high consumption condition) or very little ice cream (low consumption condition). The extent to which participants mimicked the ice cream consumption of the confederate was recorded. In addition two confederates were employed; one of the confederates in each experiment had a visual stigma. In Experiment 1 the confederate was either obese or not. In Experiment 2 the confederate had, or did not have, a facial birthmark. Results showed mimicry of the confederate's ice cream consumption except for the obese confederate in Experiment 1. Stigmatization of the to-be-mimicked target does inhibit mimicry effects but only when the nature of the Stigmatization is linked to the critical task. Results are discussed in terms of non-conscious elicitation and inhibition of behavior. Implications for social interaction are also discussed.
This study of 105 dining parties at a casual chain restaurant found that a male server received significantly larger tips when he touched the shoulder of the person paying the bill than when he did not touch the customer. This touch effect on tips was essentially the same whether the touch was for two or four seconds, and whether the customer being touched was male or female. The age of the customer, however, did have a significant effect on the extent to which the touch increased the server's tips. Young customers responded more positively to the touch than did older diners. Nevertheless, the older diners who were touched did increase their tips compared to like-aged diners who weren't touched at all. Restaurant managers' personal objections to promoting touching seem to be misguided in light of these and other experimental data, and their fears of legal repercussions from touching customers are groundless.
Shoppers in a supermarket were approached with a request to sample a new food product. Half the shoppers were touched during the request and the other half were not. Touch increased the probability of both trying the food sample and buying the product. The touch and no-touch groups did not differ in their taste rating of the product. The probability of sampling or buying the product was not related to the gender of the shopper or the experimenter.
Investigated whether a counselor who was mirror imaging a congruent arm and leg position of a client would significantly increase the client's perception of the counselor's level of empathy over the level of the client's perception when the counselor did not mirror image congruent arm and leg position. 80 high school juniors met individually with a counselor for 15 min to discuss career plans. Three variables were controlled for: counselor's direct body orientation, position of counselor's head, and empathy level of the counselor's verbal responses. The dependent variable was the Empathy subscale of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory. ANOVA results showed that clients rated the counselor as having a significantly greater level of empathy in the congruent than in the noncongruent condition. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested the effect on tipping of a female waitress touching the male patron, the female patron, or neither patron, using 112 pairs of restaurant customers. Results show the average tip in the female condition was 15%, the average tip in the male condition was 13%, and the average tip in the no-touch condition was 11%. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigates the social importance of the individual's speech style, discussing "linguistic norms" with reference to a variety of cultures and research sources. Endogenous and exogenous factors in speech style are discussed, and a tentative theory to explain speech modification is proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined whether or not a nonreciprocal brief shoulder touch would increase gratuities received by servers. Data from 400 patrons were collected by 4 servers who enacted the touch manipulation while working in 2 separate eating establishments. The findings revealed that servers who touched their patrons did receive larger gratuities than servers who did not touch their patrons. Further, in one setting, servers received larger tips from patrons who were of the opposite gender than from patrons who were of the same gender. These results support the ubiquitous influence of a fleeting touch on gratuities, and the possibility that, in certain situations, touch may be more advantageous when done by members of the opposite gender.
Literature on the structure of two-person conversations has consistently found that partners become more similar in mean duration of pauses and switching pauses over the course of interaction. Evidence on influence in vocalization duration is primarily negative. No direct evidence of interspeaker influence on a moment-to-moment basis is available. In this study 12 dyadic conversations are analyzed for interspeaker influence, with the use of time series regression procedures. Two versions of the data are presented: a probability summary including the probability of breaking mutual silences, continuing simultaneous talk, and continuing talking alone and a turn summary including vocalization, pause, and switching pause duration. Results show that (1) moment-to-moment influences are present in both versions of the data, (2) these influences differ from dyad to dyad, (3) the influences are both positive (matching) and negative (compensating), and (4) the magnitude of interspeaker influence on a temporal basis is small but detectable. In addition, there are overall tendencies to match in switching pause, probability of continued simultaneous speech, and probability of breaking mutual silences. Dyads show both compensation and matching on vocalization duration and pause-related variables. Implications of these data for past and future explanation of social interaction are explored.
Although positive effect of touch on restaurant's tipping has been widely found in the literature, no evaluation was made outside the United States of America and in a bar. An experiment was carried out in a French bar. A waitress briefly touched (or not) the forearm of a patron when asking him/her what he/she want to drink. Results show that touch increases tipping behavior although giving a tip to a waitress in a bar is unusual in France. The familiarity of tactile contact in France was used to explain our results.
The present study examined the effects of two types of touch in a controlled but natural setting, a restaurant. Waitresses briefly touched customers either on the hand or the shoulder as they were returning change. Customers' reactions were assessed by a restaurant survey and a novel behavioral measure, the tip expressed as a percentage of the bill. The tipping rate for the two types of touch did not differ from each other and did not differ according to the customer's gender. Both tipping rates were significantly larger than a control, no-touch condition. There were no touch effects on ratings of the waitress, the restaurant's atmosphere, or the dining experience. It was concluded that touch effects can occur without awareness, and that males will not react more negatively to touch than females when the touch is unobtrusive or free of status and dependency connotations.
Touch is considered an important factor in various social situations. The present results show that touching customers in the store increased their shopping time, their evaluation of the store and also the amount of shopping. The findings suggest that interpersonal touch can be an important aid to salespeople and servers.
High school students in 19 teaching dyads were measured for their degree of interpersonal coordination and rapport. Two types of movement coordination were identified and rated by a group of untrained judges: the degree of perceivedmovement synchrony, and the extent ofbehavior matching. Ratings of movement synchrony in true interactions were significantly greater than similar ratings in pseudo interaction control clips (i.e., video clips that appeared to be of the teacher and student interacting but were, in fact, a combination of video clips of each interactant recorded fromdifferent points within their interaction). Self-ratings collected from interactants indicated a strong relationship between participants'' rapport and the degree of movement synchrony perceived by raters. This relationship remained even after observer ratings of each interactant''s friendliness, a possible confound, were partialled out. This result provided empirical evidence for the hypothesized relationship between rapport and interpersonal coordination (Tickle-Degnen & Rosenthal, 1987). Ratings of behavior matching did not differ significantly between the true interactions and pseudo interaction control clips. Behavior matching failed to correlate significantly with dyadic rapport. It was, however, significantly predictive of self-reported anxiety.
Numerous experimental studies have shown that touch increases compliance with a request made by the “toucher”. Customer's behavior is also affected by tactile contact. Waiters or waitresses in a bar or in a restaurant were evaluated more positively and received higher tips when they slightly touched the customer than when no tactile contact was used. A new evaluation of the effect of tactile contact was made in a restaurant with 256 patrons. When presenting the menu to a patron, the waiter or the waitress was instructed to make or not make (control condition) a suggestion about a meal. In half of the cases, when making this suggestion, the employee slightly touched the patron on the forearm. Results showed that, compared to a control condition, the suggestion had a positive effect on patron's choice especially when the patron was touched by the employee. Theoretical and practical implication of tactile contact are discussed.
Two experiments investigated the idea that mimicry leads to pro-social behavior. It was hypothesized that mimicking the verbal behavior of customers would increase the size of tips. In Experiment 1, a waitress either mimicked half her customers by literally repeating their order or did not mimic her customers. It was found that she received significantly larger tips when she mimicked her customers than when she did not. In Experiment 2, in addition to a mimicry- and non-mimicry condition, a baseline condition was included in which the average tip was assessed prior to the experiment. The results indicated that, compared to the baseline, mimicry leads to larger tips. These results demonstrate that mimicry can be advantageous for the imitator because it can make people more generous.
Two experiments investigated the hypothesis that strategic behavioral mimicry can facilitate negotiation outcomes. Study 1 used an employment negotiation with multiple issues, and demonstrated that strategic behavioral mimicry facilitated outcomes at both the individual and dyadic levels: Negotiators who mimicked the mannerisms of their opponents both secured better individual outcomes, and their dyads as a whole also performed better when mimicking occurred compared to when it did not. Thus, mimickers created more value and then claimed most of that additional value for themselves, though not at the expense of their opponents. In Study 2, mimicry facilitated negotiators’ ability to uncover underlying compatible interests and increased the likelihood of obtaining a deal in a negotiation where a prima facie solution was not possible. Results from Study 2 also demonstrated that interpersonal trust mediated the relationship between mimicry and deal-making. Implications for our understanding of negotiation dynamics and interpersonal coordination are discussed.
La technique du leurre consiste à faire accepter un premier comportement à un individu qui lui paraisse très avantageux, puis après cette acceptation, à lui dire qu’il est impossible de le produire et de lui soumettre alors la possibilité de produire un second comportement bien moins avantageux. Une seule recherche expérimentale a été faite sur cette technique dans une situation équivoque en terme de relation entre sujet et solliciteur d’une requête. Une évaluation de cette technique a donc été faite dans un contexte marchand (la vente de chaussures) en différant graduellement le moment où l’individu était informé qu’il ne pourrait avoir ce qu’il pensait obtenir initialement. Les résultats montrent que, plus la décision initiale a pu être consolidée, plus le sujet accepte la seconde requête pourtant bien moins avantageuse que la seconde. L’engagement est avancé comme cause explicative à l’efficacité de cette technique. Mot-clés : Influence comportementale, technique du Leurre, soumission, engagement. The Lure technique consists to obtain compliance to an initial request that appeared advantageous to an individual and then, after his/her acceptance, to inform him/her that it’s impossible to lead the solicited behavior and then to propose him/her an other behavior that’s less advantageous. Only one experimental study was conducted with this technique in an equivocal relationship situation between the subject and the request’s solicitor. An evaluation of the Lure technique was carried out in a business context (shoes selling) by manipulating the delay where the subject was instructed that it would be impossible for him/her to obtain what he/she wanted initially. The results show that the more the first initial decision is reinforced the better the subject complies with the second request that was obviously less advantageous. The commitment theory was used to explain the efficacy of the Lure technique. Keywords : Behavioral influence, Lure technique, compliance, commitment. La técnica del señuelo consiste en hacer aceptar un primer comportamiento a un individuo que le parezca muy ventajoso, luego después de esta aceptación, en decirle que es imposible producirlo y someterle entonces la posibilidad de producir un segundo comportamiento mucho menos ventajoso. Se hizo una única investigación experimental sobre esta técnica en una situación ambigua en términos de relación entre tema y solicitante de una petición. Entonces se hizo una evaluación de esta técnica que pues en un contexto comercial (la venta de zapatos) difiriendo poco a poco el momento en que el individuo era informado de que no podría tener lo que pensaba obtener inicialmente. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que, más la decisión inicial pudo consolidarse y cuanto, más pudo consolidarse la decisión inicial, cuanto más acepta la segunda petición la persona (el sujeto) a pesar de ser mucho menos ventajosa que la segunda. El compromiso se avanza como causa explicativa a la eficacia de esta técnica. Palabras claves : Influencia conductista, técnica de la Añagaza, la sumisión, el empeño.
A 2 (touch-no touch) x 2 (sex of confederate) x 2 (sex of subject) between subjects design tested the affective and evaluative consequences of receiving an interpersonal touch in a Professional/Functional situation. It was found that the affective and evaluative response to touch was uniformly positive for females, who felt affectively more positive and evaluated the toucher and the environmental setting more favorably than in no touch conditions. The male response to touch was more ambivalent.
Modeling, or the imitation of another's behavior, has been proposed to influence alcohol consumption. The literature dealing with effects of modeling on alcohol consumption was reviewed using meta-analytic procedures in order to determine the strength of the modeling effect and the variables that moderate the effect.
Thirteen studies were examined in which participant's alcohol consumption in the presence of a high consumption model was compared to a low consumption model condition or a no-model condition. Analyses were conducted for the four dependent measures utilized in the literature: amount consumed, blood alcohol concentration, number of sips taken and volume per sip. Mean effect sizes (d) were calculated for each dependent measure and moderator variables were examined.
Modeling had a significant effect on all four dependent measures, with the strongest effects being on amount consumed and blood alcohol concentration. In addition, analyses identified numerous variables that moderate the effect of modeling on alcohol consumption, including the drinking history of the participant, the drinking task used and the nature of the interaction between model and participant.
Results indicated that modeling has a strong effect on alcohol consumption; however, several variables do mediate this effect.
The chameleon effect refers to nonconscious mimicry of the postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, and other behaviors of one's interaction partners, such that one's behavior passively and unintentionally changes to match that of others in one's current social environment. The authors suggest that the mechanism involved is the perception-behavior link, the recently documented finding (e.g., J. A. Bargh, M. Chen, & L. Burrows, 1996) that the mere perception of another's behavior automatically increases the likelihood of engaging in that behavior oneself. Experiment 1 showed that the motor behavior of participants unintentionally matched that of strangers with whom they worked on a task. Experiment 2 had confederates mimic the posture and movements of participants and showed that mimicry facilitates the smoothness of interactions and increases liking between interaction partners. Experiment 3 showed that dispositionally empathic individuals exhibit the chameleon effect to a greater extent than do other people.
A total of 96 men and 48 women participated in a study on the effect of touch in the natural setting of public taverns in the United States. Participants in the same-gender (men-men) or mixed-gender dyads were either touched or not touched by waitress confederates. Regardless of dyad type, participants who were touched consumed more alcohol than participants who were not touched. Men in the mixed-gender dyads consumed more alcohol when the women was touched. Same-gender (men-men) dyads aggregately consumed more alcohol than mixed-gender dyads. The results are interpreted in terms of the environmental cues and the dynamics of the group.
Nonconscious behavioral mimicry occurs when a person unwittingly imitates the behaviors of another person. This mimicry has been attributed to a direct link between perceiving a behavior and performing that same behavior. The current experiments explored whether having a goal to affiliate augments the tendency to mimic the behaviors of interaction partners. Experiment 1 demonstrated that having an affiliation goal increases nonconscious mimicry, and Experiment 2 further supported this proposition by demonstrating that people who have unsuccessfully attempted to affiliate in an interaction subsequently exhibit more mimicry than those who have not experienced such a failure. Results suggest that behavioral mimicry may be part of a person's repertoire of behaviors, used nonconsciously, when there is a desire to create rapport.
Recent studies have shown that mimicry occurs unintentionally and even among strangers. In the present studies, we investigated the consequences of this automatic phenomenon in order to learn more about the adaptive function it serves. In three studies, we consistently found that mimicry increases prosocial behavior. Participants who had been mimicked were more helpful and generous toward other people than were nonmimicked participants. These beneficial consequences of mimicry were not restricted to behavior directed toward the mimicker, but included behavior directed toward people not directly involved in the mimicry situation. These results suggest that the effects of mimicry are not simply due to increased liking for the mimicker, but are due to increased prosocial orientation in general.
Previous research demonstrated social influence resulting from mimicry (the chameleon effect); a confederate who mimicked participants was more highly regarded than a confederate who did not, despite the fact that participants did not explicitly notice the mimicry. In the current study, participants interacted with an embodied artificial intelligence agent in immersive virtual reality. The agent either mimicked a participant's head movements at a 4-s delay or utilized prerecorded movements of another participant