TY - JOUR

T1 - Observing third-party ostracism enhances facial mimicry in 30-month-olds

AU - de Klerk, Carina

AU - Albiston, Hannah

AU - Bulgarelli, Chiara

AU - Southgate, Victoria Helen

AU - Hamilton, Antonia F.

PY - 2020/8

Y1 - 2020/8

N2 - Mimicry is suggested to be one of the strategies via which we enhance social affiliation. Although recent studies have shown that, like adults, young children selectively mimic the facial actions of in-group over out-group members, it is unknown whether this early mimicry behavior is driven by affiliative motivations. Here we investigated the functional role of facial mimicry in early childhood by testing whether observing third-party ostracism, which has previously been shown to enhance children's affiliative behaviors, enhances facial mimicry in 30-month-olds. Toddlers were presented with videos in which one shape was ostracized by other shapes or with control videos that did not show any ostracism. Before and after this, the toddlers observed videos of models performing facial actions (e.g., eyebrow raising, mouth opening) while we measured activation over their corresponding facial muscles using electromyography (EMG) to obtain an index of facial mimicry. We also coded the videos of the sessions for overt imitation. We found that toddlers in the ostracism condition showed greater facial mimicry at posttest than toddlers in the control condition, as indicated by both EMG and behavioral coding measures. Although the exact mechanism underlying this result needs to be investigated in future studies, this finding is consistent with social affiliation accounts of mimicry and suggests that mimicry may play a key role in maintaining affiliative bonds when toddlers perceive the risk of social exclusion. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.

AB - Mimicry is suggested to be one of the strategies via which we enhance social affiliation. Although recent studies have shown that, like adults, young children selectively mimic the facial actions of in-group over out-group members, it is unknown whether this early mimicry behavior is driven by affiliative motivations. Here we investigated the functional role of facial mimicry in early childhood by testing whether observing third-party ostracism, which has previously been shown to enhance children's affiliative behaviors, enhances facial mimicry in 30-month-olds. Toddlers were presented with videos in which one shape was ostracized by other shapes or with control videos that did not show any ostracism. Before and after this, the toddlers observed videos of models performing facial actions (e.g., eyebrow raising, mouth opening) while we measured activation over their corresponding facial muscles using electromyography (EMG) to obtain an index of facial mimicry. We also coded the videos of the sessions for overt imitation. We found that toddlers in the ostracism condition showed greater facial mimicry at posttest than toddlers in the control condition, as indicated by both EMG and behavioral coding measures. Although the exact mechanism underlying this result needs to be investigated in future studies, this finding is consistent with social affiliation accounts of mimicry and suggests that mimicry may play a key role in maintaining affiliative bonds when toddlers perceive the risk of social exclusion. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.

KW - Mimicry

KW - Affiliation

KW - Priming

KW - Ostracism

KW - Toddlerhood

KW - Imitation

KW - SOCIAL EXCLUSION

KW - BEHAVIORAL MIMICRY

KW - EMOTIONAL MIMICRY

KW - EMG EVIDENCE

KW - IMITATION

KW - EXPRESSIONS

KW - TELEVISION

KW - VOLUNTARY

KW - IMPACT

U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104862

DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104862

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 32353814

VL - 196

JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

SN - 0022-0965

M1 - 104862

ER -