Mimicry

Research Question:
Is Mimicry advantageous in certain social settings?

Hypothesis:
We hypothesize that if we mimic our friends they will spend more time with us.

Variables:
Independent Variable: Us mimicking our friends. Dependent Variable: If our friends will spend more time with us.

Materials:
Our bodies Their Minds

Procedure: 1. First Kiana mimicked Kagiso doing ballet at break. 2. It was very successful she started showing Kiana the correct positions. At lunch she did spend time with us. 3. Second Eln mimicked Ndhilani in the way she stood and she tried to repeat her words without actually saying it in the same order. 4. Ndhilani got very irritated and ignored Eln. 5. She didnt spend lunch with us so it was unsuccessful. 6. Kiana continued mimicking Kagiso and it still succeeded and she did spend lunch with us.

7. Eln thought Ndhilani got irritated because of her mood so Eln continued mimicking Ndhilani for the rest of the week and Ndhilani still got irritated. Results: Our plan was to mimic them individually over a time period of a week and then to compare it. We did this and we got very different results. Kagiso fell for the experiment and spend more time with us. Ndhilani didnt like it at all she got very irritated and ignored us and she still didnt spend lunch with us. This just shows how peoples minds differ. Kagiso is much more easy going and doesnt care if she is being copied doing ballet. Ndhilani on the other hand doesnt like it.

Conclusions: We both accept and reject our hypothesis because with Kagiso we accept it and with Ndhilani we reject it. We hypothesized that if we mimic our friends they with spend lunch time with us. Kagiso did spend lunch with us but Ndhilani didnt. This experiment is very hard to do because the majority of it depends on the persons mind and how they react on being mimicked.

By: Eln van der Westhuyzen and Kiana do Carmo