An Exploration of Social Modulation of Syntactic Priming

Adoption of other people’s behaviors is a well-documented tendency termed social mimicry or the “chameleon effect.” Although social psychologists have begun to document the subtle nuances that impact mimicry, there is little on the social variables that influence similar processes in psycholinguistics. In two experiments, we demonstrate the influence of social factors on syntactic priming and mimicry. Exp. 1 found increased syntactic priming of a liked interaction partner and less priming of a disliked partner. In Exp. 2, we rule out the influence of mood and argue that the goal to repair social interactions promotes this syntactic mimicry. In sum, we argue that social goals constrain syntactic use and mimicry.