According to a recent study published in the journal Psychological Science , when two people talk, they tend to change their way of speaking to get closer . "They even mimic the body posture of the subject in front of them, for example the way they cross their arms," explains Patti Adank, a researcher at the University of Manchester and co-author of the work. But in addition, Adank has found that when we imitate the accent of the people with whom we speak, the understanding of the message improves greatly. According to the researcher, although we do not usually go to the extreme of totally imitating an accent in our daily interactions with other people, because it could be interpreted as mockery, our brain unconsciously modulates the voice so that it more closely resembles that of our interlocutors .
The results coincide with those provided by another study from the University of California, published in the journal Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics last year, which suggested that, unconsciously, we imitate the way of speaking of those with whom we even converse. if instead of listening to them we only read their lips. ? This unintended imitation can serve as a social 'glue', helping us to empathize with others ,? concluded Lawrence Rosenblum, co-author of the work.
