Replication Research Symposium

Title: Replication of the Chameleon Effect (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999, Study 1)

In 1999, Chartrand and Bargh first demonstrated that humans have a natural tendency to mimic one another. The Chameleon Effect, named after this phenomenon, refers to “nonconscious mimicry of the postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, and other behaviors of one’s interaction partners, such that one’s behavior passively and unintentionally changes to match that of others in one’s current social environment” (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999, p. 893). In Study 1 of the original study, mimicry occurred even among strangers without an active goal to affiliate with the interaction partner. I have replicated the experiment with partial success despite limitations in the conduction and assumed cluelessness of participants about the purpose of the study. I want to talk about challenges, insights and the learning process I had while replicating the original study.
The experiment was pre-registered via the open science framework (https://osf.io/7weum/view_only=1fe5c59031ea4805989d52f3e24ed5a2).