TY - JOUR

T1 - Intimate imitation: Automatic motor imitation in romantic relationships

AU - Maister, Lara

AU - Tsakiris, Manos

N1 - Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PY - 2016/7

Y1 - 2016/7

N2 - Our relationships with romantic partners are often some of the closest and most important relationships that we experience in our adult lives. Interpersonal closeness in romantic relationships is characterised by an increased overlap between cognitive representations of oneself and one's partner. Importantly, this type of self-other overlap also occurs in the bodily domain, whereby we can represent another's embodied experiences in the same way as we represent our own. However, as yet this bodily self-other overlap has only been investigated in individuals unfamiliar to each other. Here, we investigate bodily self-other overlap between romantic partners, using automatic imitation as an example case of bodily overlap in the motor domain. We found that participants automatically imitated romantic partners significantly more than close others with whom they had a platonic relationship. Furthermore, imitation in these relationships was related to key aspects of relationship quality, as indicated by adult attachment style.

AB - Our relationships with romantic partners are often some of the closest and most important relationships that we experience in our adult lives. Interpersonal closeness in romantic relationships is characterised by an increased overlap between cognitive representations of oneself and one's partner. Importantly, this type of self-other overlap also occurs in the bodily domain, whereby we can represent another's embodied experiences in the same way as we represent our own. However, as yet this bodily self-other overlap has only been investigated in individuals unfamiliar to each other. Here, we investigate bodily self-other overlap between romantic partners, using automatic imitation as an example case of bodily overlap in the motor domain. We found that participants automatically imitated romantic partners significantly more than close others with whom they had a platonic relationship. Furthermore, imitation in these relationships was related to key aspects of relationship quality, as indicated by adult attachment style.

KW - Adult

KW - Cognition

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Imitative Behavior

KW - Interpersonal Relations

KW - Male

KW - Object Attachment

KW - Photic Stimulation

KW - Psychomotor Performance

KW - Self Concept

KW - Social Perception

KW - Young Adult

U2 - 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.03.018

DO - 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.03.018

M3 - Article

C2 - 27045464

VL - 152

SP - 108

EP - 113

JO - Cognition

JF - Cognition

SN - 0010-0277

ER -