Individuals have the automatic tendency to imitate each other. A key prediction of different theories explaining automatic imitation is that individuals imitate in-group members more strongly than out-group members. However, the empirical basis for this prediction is rather inconclusive. Only a few experiments have investigated the influence of group membership using classic automatic imitation paradigms and these experiments led to mixed results. To put the group membership prediction to a critical test, we carried out six high-powered experiments (total N = 1538) in which we assessed imitation with the imitation-inhibition task and manipulated group membership in different ways. Evidence across all experiments indicates that group membership does not modulate automatic imitation. Moreover, we do not find support for the idea that feelings of affiliation or perceived similarity moderate the effect of group membership on automatic imitation. These results have important implications for theories explaining automatic imitation and contribute to the current discussion of whether automatic imitation can be socially modulated.

个人有互相模仿的自动倾向。解释自动模仿的不同理论的一个关键预测是，个人比组外成员更强烈地模仿组内成员。然而，这一预测的经验基础相当不确定。只有少数实验使用经典的自动模仿范式研究了群体成员的影响，这些实验导致了不同的结果。为了对组成员身份预测进行严格测试，我们进行了六次高性能实验（总共N = 1538），其中我们用模仿抑制任务评估模仿，并以不同的方式操纵群体成员。所有实验的证据表明，群体成员身份不会调节自动模仿。此外，我们没有找到支持归属感或感知相似性调节群体成员对自动模仿的影响的观点。这些结果对解释自动模仿的理论具有重要意义，并有助于当前关于自动模仿是否可以被社会调节的讨论。