Testing the relationship between mimicry, trust and rapport in virtual reality conversations

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality

Background:

• Automatic mimicry is a common human behavior during social interactions.
• This mimicry is widely believed to enhance social bonding and rapport.
• However, empirical evidence for mimicry's consistent effect on rapport and trust remains debated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To rigorously test the hypothesis that mimicry increases rapport and trust using virtual reality.
• To investigate the influence of timing delays in mimicry on social connection.
• To examine whether cultural group membership modulates the effects of mimicry on social perceptions and behavior.

Main Methods:

• Two virtual reality studies were conducted involving participant interactions with avatars.
• Study 1: Participants (N=50) interacted with avatars that mimicked head/torso movements with varying delays or did not mimic.
• Study 2: Participants (N=40) from diverse cultural backgrounds interacted with avatars of differing ethnicities, with and without mimicry, and completed trust tasks.

Main Results:

• Study 1 found increased rapport with mimicking avatars, irrespective of timing.
• Study 2 failed to replicate the rapport-building effect of mimicry.
• Neither study found significant effects of mimicry on trust ratings, implicit trust behavior, or modulation by cultural ingroup-outgroup status.

Conclusions:

• The assumption that mimicry universally enhances rapport and trust is not consistently supported.
• Virtual reality provides a controlled environment to study social behaviors like mimicry.
• Future research should explore contextual factors that may influence the effectiveness of mimicry in social interactions.