Going out for a smoke together and mimicking behaviours associated with smoking can double tobacco consumption and make quitting more difficult. Researchers from SWPS University examined mimicry as a "social glue" in interactions between smokers, and published the results in the International Journal of Psychology.
The research findings could revolutionise the design of smoking areas, and anti-smoking campaigns.
Tobacco addiction is one of the major factors leading to preventable adult deaths worldwide. That is why researchers from SWPS University decided to investigate whether mimicry , a phenomenon also known as the "chameleon effect," in which people mimic each other's mannerisms, words, and even facial expressions depicting emotions and moods, could support quitting. It turns out that while smoking has long been considered a habit with a strong social basis, recent experiments show that the mechanism behind this phenomenon is mimicry, not the mere presence of others.
Mimicry fosters smooth interactions and smoking
The researchers conducted the first experiment in a laboratory setting. 40 adults participated in brief interviews about their health lifestyles. During the interviews with some of the participants, the experimenter discreetly mimicked the participants' movements, while refraining from doing so in the control group. The participants were then invited to a smoking area. The result? The mimicked participants smoked an average of 2.5 cigarettes, twice as many as the control group, whose gestures were not mimicked. Furthermore, these participants reported greater liking for the experimenter.
The results showed that mimicry previously led to an increased cigarette consumption. We assumed that, consistently with the "social glue" hypothesis, copying movements increases liking for the person who mimics us. In the experiment, this induced sense of connection that acted as a dangerous and unhealthy catalyst for increased tobacco use, says the lead author of the study, social psychologist Professor Wojciech Kulesza, PhD, head of the Department of Social Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University in Warsaw.
Mimicry discourages smokers from quitting the addiction
The second phase of the study (involving 120 participants) was conducted in a natural environment , in the smoking areas of Warsaw clubs and pubs. Participants were randomly divided into three groups. In the control group, the experimenter did not smoke at all; in the second (mimicry) group, the experimenter smoked, taking a puff shortly after the participant and exhaling the smoke in the same direction. In the third (in-group/no mimicry) condition, the experimenter smoked, but in a way that was not in sync with the participant.
The participants were briefly interviewed about their lifestyles and then asked to complete a questionnaire. They were asked, among other things, whether they considering quitting within the next five years and whether they would consider switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes.
The effect of mimicry was evident: Synchronised smoking reduced the declared willingness to quit smoking within five years from 8.80 (in the control group) to just 2.65 on a 10-point scale. The mere presence of a smoker did not reduce participants' motivation to quit, which means that the decisive factor is not a sense of belonging to a group, it is mimicry, reports the study co-author Paweł Muniak, PhD, from the Faculty of Psychology at SWPS University in Warsaw.
Interestingly, the mimicked individuals declared a significantly higher willingness to switch from regular cigarettes to e-cigarettes (an increase from 2.65 to 8.32).
No more communal smoking rooms?
The researchers point out that mimicry can help therapists develop more effective intervention strategies. Understanding this phenomenon is also crucial for improving the effectiveness of anti-smoking campaigns. Fighting addiction requires a holistic approach that combines social and environmental strategies with traditional psychological and biological methods of coping with tobacco addiction. The authors of the paper propose, for example, transforming communal smoking areas into single-person spaces. The lack of contact with others eliminates the phenomenon of mimicry and weakens the bonds that perpetuate the addiction.
Educating smokers about the role of mimicry in maintaining nicotine addiction is also important.
The results of our experiments have significant practical implications, particularly for addiction treatment professionals. They show that while smokers whose smoking behaviour was mimicked were more likely to switch to e-cigarettes (which are considered a healthier alternative), they were less likely to quit smoking altogether than participants from the control group. This highlights the complex interplay of psychological, social and environmental factors in behaviours associated with this addiction, emphasises Wojciech Kulesza from SWPS University.
