IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v77y2022i7p1210-1218..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Love and Imitation: Facial Mimicry and Relationship Satisfaction in Younger and Older Couples

Author

Listed:
  • Margund K Rohr
  • Maike Salazar Kämpf
  • Ute Kunzmann

Abstract

ObjectivesSocial mimicry, the imitation of one’s conversation partner, is associated with empathy, liking, and affiliation. Because previous research has mainly focused on young adulthood and zero acquaintances, little is known about age differences in mimicry and its role in romantic relationships.MethodsIn this study, 37 younger and 41 older couples talked about an ongoing problem faced by one of the partners while being video-recorded. Three independent observers assessed partners’ facial mimicry. After the conversation, couples evaluated the quality of their relationship.ResultsYounger couples imitated each other more than older couples. The link between mimicry and relationship quality was mixed. While facial mimicry was not linked to subjective closeness in either younger or older couples, there was a significant positive association between mimicry and relationship satisfaction in young, but not older, couples.DiscussionOverall, the results suggest that facial mimicry is a social process that becomes less prevalent and might differ in their function as individuals age.

Suggested Citation

  • Margund K Rohr & Maike Salazar Kämpf & Ute Kunzmann, 2022. "Love and Imitation: Facial Mimicry and Relationship Satisfaction in Younger and Older Couples," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 77(7), pages 1210-1218.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:77:y:2022:i:7:p:1210-1218.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbab193
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:77:y:2022:i:7:p:1210-1218.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.