Mimicry has been proven to be responsible for many social consequences linked to social bonding: improved trust, liking, and rapport. This accumulating empirical evidence has mostly been based on experimental designs focused on comparisons between two conditions: an experimental condition involving mimicking behavior versus a control condition in which any movement or direct verbal reaction is withdrawn. Thus, it is unclear whether the observed differences stem from a potential increase in liking, trust, or rapport in the mimicry condition or a decrease thereof when naturally occurring gestures are not present during the interaction. To address this potential confound, we included an additional control condition involving responsiveness (but not mimicry) aimed at increasing both internal and external validity. We found significant differences between the mimicry condition and both control conditions, thereby lending support to the original mimicry-as-a-social-glue hypothesis.

Forty years of research on Unrealistic Optimism - a delusion that negative events are less likely and positive events are more likely to happen to oneself (in comparison to others) - has proved to be robust. Importantly, as a result, people holding this bias reduce their engagement in health prevention and following medical recommendations, etc., leading to the conclusion that this bias is dangerous. However, there is hardly any research on how to reduce this bias. To address this issue, an experiment in the real-life context of the COVID-19 pandemic was run. It was found that participants’ Unrealistic Optimism was reduced when they were exposed to the behavior of others who did not follow medical recommendations.