Chameleon effect: when we imitate the other without realizing it.

A psychological phenomenon that occurs when we practice an unconscious mimicry with the interlocutor.

If you are a regular viewer of nature documentaries, you will surely have noticed that animals do all kinds of bizarre things to better adapt to their environment. One of the most striking strategies they use to survive in biologically diverse environments, for example, is to imitating other species.

Representatives of this example range from butterflies that simulate having a face on their outstretched wings to harmless snakes that have evolved to resemble deadly biting vipers. As cumbersome as it may seem to maintain this kind of disguise, what is clear is that it works for them: otherwise, natural evolution would not have carved their faces with such precision.

This ability to imitate other organisms is known as mimicry, and we humans also make use of it, although we are not used to realizing it. This phenomenon is known as the chameleon effect.

What is the chameleon effect?

The "chameleon effect" is known as the tendency to unconsciously imitate the people with whom we are interacting..

The existence of this behavior pattern is well documented, and it seems to be triggered by the simple perception of the other person. As soon as we come into contact with them, we have a good chance of starting to imitate their tone of voice, posture and other subtle aspects related to non-verbal language.

It is believed that the raison d'être of the chameleon effect is to to establish something akin to a synchrony with the other person, which allows us to that allows us to please the other person more and facilitate communication. In addition, the most empathic people tend to be more inclined to imitate their interlocutor. On the other hand, it is very likely that mirror neurons are directly involved in this curious phenomenon.

The disadvantages of unconscious mimicry

However, the chameleon effect is a double-edged sword. Not only the positive aspects of the other person are imitated, those that predispose to have a communicative and open attitude: we also imitate the negative aspects. In other words, our tendency to establish synchronicities with the interlocutor does not consist in using a certain non-verbal language and a certain voice to make the other person like us, on the contrary.

Because of the flexibility required to deal with many people in many different states of mind, the chameleon effect involves replicating parts of the other person's behavior, whether friendly or unfriendly.. This can be detrimental to us, as recent research has shown.

The chameleon effect experiment

In this experiment, a series of female job candidates were given a simulated telephone interview. The questions were recorded, and were formulated with a negative tone of voice (these recordings had previously been evaluated according to the scales "enthusiasm-boredom", "positive-negative" and "cold-warm"). Throughout the job interviews, it was confirmed that the candidates tended to imitate the tone of voice of the recordings, although none of them realized it.although none of them noticed it.

In addition, adopting a negative tone of voice significantly impaired the impression they made on a panel of judges evaluating them as potential employees. This creates a vicious circle or, in this case, a self-fulfilling prophecy: the interviewer who has low expectations of being satisfied with the candidate uses a negative tone of voice. The candidate, in turn, makes this tone of voice his or her own and makes the interviewer reaffirm his or her prejudices, when in fact he or she is only seeing a reflection of his or her own communicative disposition. And all this happens, of course, without either of them realizing how irrational this dynamic is.

Its application in marketing

It is clear that although the chameleon effect is reminiscent of the mimicry used by some small animal species, its function is not the same. In the first case, the objective is to survive, while in the second... it is not clear. In fact, it could be that this tendency to mimic it could be that this tendency to mimic unconsciously is of no use whatsoever.After all, not all the characteristics that have emerged from Biological evolution are practical.

However, there is one area in which this mimicry is used as a resource: sales. Experienced salespeople learn to imitate the gestures, rhythms and even the postures of their interlocutors in order to better convince them by creating a "state of mutual attunement".. Whether this measure is really effective or not, in any case, is highly debatable.

• You may be interested in these articles:

"Heuristics": the mental shortcuts of human thinking.

Neuromarketing: your brain knows what it wants to buy.

Bibliographical references:

• Chartrand, T. L. and Bargh, J. A. (1999). The chameleon effect: The perception-behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(6), pp. 893 - 910.

• Smith-Genthôs, K. R., Reich, D. A., Lakin, J. L., & de Calvo, M. P. C. (2015). The tongue-tied chameleon: The role of nonconscious mimicry in the behavioral confirmation process. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 56, pp. 179 - 182.