THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE STATUS ON SELF-OTHER PROCESSING AS REVEALED BY AUTOMATIC IMITATION

High status individuals have been found to be less attuned to the behavior of others in the social environment. An important question is whether social status in an online setting affects social information processing in a way that resembles the known effects of real-world status on such processing. We examined differences in automatic imitation between Instagram leaders and followers. In Experiment 1, we found that followers exhibited more automatic imitation than leaders. Experiment 2 sought to establish whether this effect depended on status being salient, or whether it would occur spontaneously in the absence of priming. Results confirmed that thinking about status prior to the task is necessary for producing the pattern of effects in which high status individuals exhibit less automatic imitation than lower status individuals. We discuss our findings in relation to the effects of online status on self-other processing as assessed in the automatic imitation task.

Automated summary

High status individuals tend to pay less attention to the behavior of others in the social environment, similar to the effects of real-world status on social information processing. In an online setting, leaders exhibit less automatic imitation compared to followers, with the necessity of priming status beforehand for this effect to occur. These findings suggest that online status can impact self-other processing, as assessed in the automatic imitation task.