The Conversational Chameleon: An Investigation Into the Link Between Dialogue and Verbal Mimicry

Wojciech Kulesza , Dariusz Doliński , Paula Wicher , Avia Huisman

Abstract

Verbal mimicry research claims that repeating words spoken by another makes people more eager to comply with requests made by the mimicker (e.g., fulfilling a request to donate to charity). Instead, another mechanism might explain these results. Recent studies found that when a request was preceded by engaging a participant in dialogue (defined as a short conversation), the participant was more willing to fulfill the request. Thus, verbal mimicry might be perceived in the same way as dialogue. If this is the case, a theoretical confound would be revealed. To test whether the mechanisms are different of the same, two field studies were conducted using a 2 (dialogue: yes/no) × 2 (mimicry: yes/no) design. The study results revealed two main effects and no interaction effects, which means that verbal mimicry and dialogue are two distinct mechanisms. Interestingly, additive effects for these mechanisms were found.