Social Mirror Theory (SMT) also is referred to as mimicry. Mimicry serves as an important impersonal function. The notion that individuals mimic the behaviors of others has long been of interest to psychologists (James, 1890). Over the past 30 years, there has been a noticeable surge in research exploring the subtle and unintentional ways in which people imitate their social interaction partners, including mimicry of facial expressions, emotions, speech patterns and physical movements. The non-conscious mimicry is notably different than conscious imitation or modeling, and important part of the Social Learning Theory (SLT), (Bandura, 1977). To understand why we mimic and articulate the functions that mimicry serves, systemic investigations into mimicry's wide-ranging consequences have been conducted through investigations into the factors that may facilitate and inhibit non conscious mimicry.
