Mirroring
alt.memetics archives
April 2-19, 1995
Number of articles: 6
From: hingh@xs4all.nl (Marc)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: mirroring
Date: 2 Apr 1995 13:52:12 GMT
This one's for the behaviorists/methodologists.
Attempting to explain the well-known NLP technique of "mirroring" in a
replicator model, i propose two hypotheses. They explain only a part of
the whole mechanism. (Take some time to speculate on how the "mirroring"
phenomenon can be understood using either hypothesis as a basis)
PHENOMENON:
The "mirroring" effect: When A intentionally mimics B's body
language, B will be more likely to have confidence in A.
HYPOTHESIS 1:
Part of the infection strategy of B's body language memes is to cause
positive social feedback towards people expressing the same pattern.
HYPOTHESIS 2:
When A's body language does not differ from B's body language, there
is no "replication pressure" from B's body language memes.
How can we test (empirically) which one is the best approach?
++marc
http://www.xs4all.nl/~hingh/
From: nv91-asa@tjornyj.nada.kth.se (Anders Sandberg)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: Re: mirroring
Date: 03 Apr 1995 15:19:46 GMT
Marc wrote:
>Attempting to explain the well-known NLP technique of "mirroring" in a
>replicator model, i propose two hypotheses. They explain only a part of
>the whole mechanism. (Take some time to speculate on how the "mirroring"
>phenomenon can be understood using either hypothesis as a basis)
>
>
>PHENOMENON:
> The "mirroring" effect: When A intentionally mimics B's body
> language, B will be more likely to have confidence in A.
It is known that within a social unit (such as a family or a society)
there are usually more or less distinct local body language memes. If a
person sees another person with similar behavior, he might feel more
kinship with him since he might be a part of the social unit. This is
probably both genetic (compare the different mating behaviors which
distinguish different species and races and serve to separate them) and
memetic (body language memes may couple to xenophobia and kinship
emotions).
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@hemul.nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
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From: onar@hsr.no (Onar Aam)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: Re: mirroring
Date: 4 Apr 1995 14:28:42 GMT
>PHENOMENON:
> The "mirroring" effect: When A intentionally mimics B's body
> language, B will be more likely to have confidence in A.
>
>HYPOTHESIS 1:
> Part of the infection strategy of B's body language memes is to cause
> positive social feedback towards people expressing the same pattern.
>
>HYPOTHESIS 2:
> When A's body language does not differ from B's body language, there
> is no "replication pressure" from B's body language memes.
>
>
>How can we test (empirically) which one is the best approach?
Why do we have to choose? It is well-known from physiology that the same organ
may have many different functions. (functional synergy). Likewise, an organism
may surf on multiple coinciding evolutionary strategies. (evolutionary synergy).
I assume that strategic synergy is especially important in parasitic evolution.
Onar.
From: hingh@xs4all.nl (Marc)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: Re: mirroring
Date: 5 Apr 1995 15:45:28 GMT
Anders writes:
"iT iS KNOWN THAT WiTHiN A SOCiAL UNiT (SUCH AS A FAMiLY OR A SOCiETY)
THERE ARE USUALLY MORE OR LESS DiSTiNCT LOCAL BODY LANGUAGE MEMES. iF A
PERSON SEES ANOTHER PERSON WiTH SiMiLAR BEHAViOR, HE MiGHT FEEL MORE
KiNSHiP WiTH HiM SiNCE HE MiGHT BE A PART OF THE SOCiAL UNiT. THiS iS
PROBABLY BOTH GENETiC (COMPARE THE DiFFERENT MATiNG BEHAViORS WHiCH
DiSTiNGUiSH DiFFERENT SPECiES AND RACES AND SERVE TO SEPARATE THEM) AND
MEMETiC (BODY LANGUAGE MEMES MAY COUPLE TO XENOPHOBiA AND KiNSHiP
EMOTiONS)."
which raises one crucial question:
How does this person determine the degree of "similarity" of another
person's behavior to his own behavior?
He must have an internal criterion, a perceptual instrument to 'measure'
the "kinship-ratio" of somebody he meets.
According to the measured degree of similarity, an emotional reaction
follows. We can assume the emotional reaction has indeed a genetic basis.
The perceptual instrument itself however is far too complex to be
(entirely) genetic. We inherit it in a memetic way from the people in our
social unit.
If you think about this more than two seconds, you'll see that this
instrument will evolve towards an instrument that not only MEASURES
"distance in meme-space" (kinship-ratio), but also DEFINES it.
The definition is not just random. An optimal definition is of major
strategic importance to many memes the social unit carries.
....
marc
From: hingh@xs4all.nl (Marc)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: friendship (was: mirroring)
Date: 7 Apr 1995 07:09:55 GMT
I have a friend who shares many of my 'ways of doing', like my type of
humor, some styles of thinking, reactions to certain situations etc.
That has not always been so. It has grown in the years we have known
eachother.
When I see her do something I would have done likewise, or hear her express
a thought matching my way of thinking, I feel good. Not because I love
myself so much, but because it reminds me of the strong bond we have, which
is very dear to me.
I show her the feel-good, by putting a smile on my face. And she does the
same with me, when I say or do something matching her style.
Such feedback is just subtle enough to make me happy about what I said or
did. You can see it as a direct 'conditioning' effect, reinforcing the
behavior shown, and increasing the chance of me displaying the same pattern
again in similar situations later on.
In this mechanism you can recognize a memetic replication strategy.
Let us turn around the reasoning: the feel-good and smiling are not the
_effect_ of friendship, they are the _cause_ of the 'assimilation' leading
to friendship. Every meme I carry takes care of its own reproduction by
making me smile to its self-portrait. The meme does not care about
concepts like 'friendship'.
A plus-point of this change of perspective is that it answers a question
that is difficult to answer in the more usual "first person" perspective:
how do I so efficiently recognize my own patterns of behavior in another
person's behavior?
The answer is: my memes are especially designed to do that efficiently,
because its their way or replicating. I do not have to learn it myself.
Note the role of consciousness in all this: I do not smile to her because
I like her --- I think I like her because I notice that I smile to her.
++marc
http://www.xs4all.nl/~hingh/
From: hingh@xs4all.nl (Marc)
Newsgroups: alt.memetics
Subject: social feedback (was: friendship)
Date: 19 Apr 1995 15:31:50 GMT
>I show her the feel-good, by putting a smile on my face. And she does the
>same with me, when I say or do something matching her style.
>Such feedback is just subtle enough to make me happy about what I said or
>did. You can see it as a direct 'conditioning' effect, reinforcing the
>behavior shown, and increasing the chance of me displaying the same pattern
>again in similar situations later on.
>In this mechanism you can recognize a memetic replication strategy.
If you have high self-esteem, your perception is programmed to interpret
all non-verbal feedback as "positive" (i.e. further inflating your ego).
If you feel guilty for something you did, it seems as if everybody blaims
you for it, even the ones that cannot know you did it: your perception is
focused at negative signals.
Conclusion: interpretation of non-verbal responses is entirely regulated
from inside --- actual (external) 'social feedback' is an illusion.
Translating this into a memetic model...
Memes (operating from within) program their host's perception of non-verbal
communication in a way that supports their agenda.
More specific: memes competing in your mind try to create negative feedback
while their competitors are active, and positive feedback for themselves.
In the 'high self-esteem' situation, there is one dictatorial meme in full
control of social feedback interpretation.
The 'guilty feeling' host carries conflicting memes: a moral system, being
(partially) in control of social feedback interpretation, apparently does
not control (all) behavior.
Marc de Hingh
mailto:hingh@xs4all.nl
http://www.xs4all.nl/~hingh/