A very interesting article published on a website of a US university this days.
The article talks about body language and is based on a research from 2 proffessors. Typically those involved in the negotiations advising us to have personal contact with our counterparts in the negotiations (face to face) rather than rely on telephone or on the internet. Without knowing the gestures were made,or the facial expressions(i would say a simple hand shake says a lot) we can not read from a distance one negotiator to build rapport with her/him. What negotiators learn from nonverbal behavior? Can we increase our negotiating success by changing or deliberately alter our own nonverbal behavior? Business Negotiations To mimic or not to mimic ? You have a meeting where welcomes you a person of administration staff.Leeds you to a conference room,one person opposite the other person to the negotiating table.After half hour the discussion seems to go well. You sit in the same position ,leaning back with legs crossed. After two or three meetings for negotiations with the same people from the first minutes of their behavior starts to converge discretely,many gestures synchronizing,than embarrassed.Always in accordance with the article,imitation/mimicry is a sign that you are trying to build rapport,to connect or to find common ground.Mimicry makes us feel comfortable with others and encourages us to trust them.Another proffessor from Duke university find us tend to think of honest and convincing the movements of those who imitated us. As we read above in the first stages of negotiation foot are crossed,so the person is without confidence,or is in ancertainty. In interpersonal relations being imitated body language of an other person may increase the chances of becoming liked. Is the tendency to imitate another person's speech inlfections.When there is harmony the body is actually autonomously ,making the interaction smoother and increases the level of likeability. In 1999 2 proffessors from a psychology department did an experiment. The issue was to address the question of whether people automatically copy each other,so they are following a methodology with 78 participants,were asked to have a one on one talk with one of the experimenters. Each of the experimenters makes different facial expressions or laughing more than others.To find out whether waggling foot and touching the face has any direct effect on the interaction in a room.The conversation was about a photograph. With the half the subjects,experimenters maintened a neutral and relaxed position.But others the experimenters mimicked the posture,movements,crossing their legs or twirling their hair when subjects did. Others researchers also wanted to find out what psychological dispositions affect a person's tendency of naturally engaging in mimicry more than others do.55 subjects they were made to sit opposite the experimenter,who was also tasked to do the same mannerisms like face rubbing and foot waggling as before. Results : 1.Subjects noticeably copied the experimenter who was actually stranger to them,as measured by face touching,foot waggling and smiling. The act of face touching increased by 20% but the rate of foot waggling inreased by a significant figure of 50% when participants were inspired by another foot waggler. 2.Those whose moves had been imitated had rated their experimenters as more likeable,and reported having better and smoother interactions with them. Apparently mirroring did indeed work to increase experimenter's likeability. Experimenters likeability was rated at 6.62 and smoothness was rated at 6.76, when their gestures were copied. Contrary to this,when experimenters were not mimicked,they were rated for likeability at an average of 5.91 and smoothness for an average of 6.02, slightly less compared to when they were mimicked. 3. Individuals who were more open to other people's ideas mimicked face rubbing gestures more by 30% and foot waggling by 50% compared to their counterparts.Peoples with empathetic characteristic do not affect their rate of mimicry at all. Conclusion:People feel a rapport with those who naturally mimic their moves. Unintentional mimicry and imitation functions as a social cohesive.Emphatic people or those who easily takes the perspective of others,were also concluded to be mirroring other peoples actions more often.
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AuthorAndreas is a pr professional. Archives |