When I first heard about the Human Spark project, I was excited. What makes us uniquely human is a question that has intrigued social scientists for over a century. Much of my work over the years has ...

Tanya Chartrand, assistant professor of psychology, said such nonconscious goals can have significant effects on how we feel and act, and even on how well we achieve other goals. "If you succeed at a ...

Why do we unconsciously adopt a Southern twang when visiting a friend in Alabama or make caustic remarks around an especially sarcastic co-worker? Because it makes them like us better. We mimic the ...

Today we’ve just finished shooting here at Duke University a series of experiments with Tanya Chartrand on how we humans unconsciously mimic each other, and how doing so helps us become more social.

Citations: van Baaren, Rick, William Maddux, Tanya Chartrand, Chris de Bouter, Ad van Knippenberg. 2003. It Takes Two to Mimic: Behavioral Consequences of Self-Construals. Journal of Personality and ...