PSY 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Mirror Neuron, Dispositional Attribution, Confirmation Bias
Document Summary
Nonconscious mimicry: tendency to adopt behaviors, postures, or mannerisms of interaction partners without conscious awareness or intention. Research on this topic using pet and eeg recordings has shown that we mirror neurons in our brain that are the basis of imitation learning. Waitress who mimic customers = bigger tip. Survival and reproduction depend on our ancestors having successful social interactions. If you are able to cooperate with others and maintain social ties you are more likely to be included in group activities. This gives you an advantage over others in your group. Research using brain imaging studies indicates that when forming impressions of others, we give more weight to negative information than positive information. Gossiping may have been a popular pastime for humans because we enjoyed learning about personal flaws, but because we gained information that increased about ability to survive.
