Paper Short Abstract:

Children must learn how -as well as who- it is appropriate to imitate. I present imitation events amongst children in Helsinki and discuss the emotions and reactions evoked by “inappropriate” imitation. I consider what this indicates about both social learning norms and “pathological” imitation.

Paper Abstract:

Imitation underpins human social learning mechanisms, and from an early age, children are prone to imitating others in their social worlds. Anthropological accounts have highlighted a prestige bias in social learning, indicating that children must learn who to imitate. Less attention has been paid to the fact that children also need to learn how and when to imitate in socially appropriate or normative ways.

Here, I draw on ethnographic data collected amongst children in Helsinki, Finland, to analyse the complex and nuanced responses to “imitation events” occurring during their everyday lives. In several cases, children or adults reacted negatively to being imitated, typically with annoyance or irritation; I consider how such reactions help children to recognise the inappropriateness of imitation in particular contexts. In others, imitation was explicitly used to mock - rather than flatter – a peer or sibling. Here, I focus on these events that involved “inappropriate” imitation, exploring what kinds of emotions and reactions were evoked in the involved parties before, during, and after the event and identifying what aspects of the imitation made it “inappropriate” and how this was communicated.

I argue that studying children as they learn and practice how to imitate makes the social norms and moral-ethical codes that underpin normative imitation practices more explicit. I also discuss how the developmental approach can help us to understand so-called “pathological” imitation in adults, since many of these behaviours may be common – but soon learnt to be socially inappropriate - in young children.