Emulating your conversation partner’s actions is a common human behavior classified as “mirroring” and has been known and studied by psychologists for years. We all tend to subconsciously copy gestures of people we like. But why do we act like this?
As a rule, mirroring means that conversationalists enjoy their communication and that there’s a certain level of agreement between them. The topic of discussion is equally interesting for both and they know their interests meet.
Repeating someone’s behavior is typical of talented communicators, not always because the person is sympathetic, but because there is a goal to be achieved. This way new idols have been brought to the stage: politicians, celebrities, and other big names. Popular culture makes people want to look popular, and act and speak like popular people.
Nowadays celebrities steal lyrics from each other and struggle with copyright violation accusations or straightforwardly claim themselves to be the authors, even though all the work was done by other people.
Among celebrities, it’s trendy nowadays to use their own speech writers as politicians do. The so-called “ghostwriting” can take various forms: books, articles, autobiographies, and even social media posts.
Who is a true copycat (抄袭者) and who gets copycatted? Sometimes, it is a hard nut to crack without an expert’s help. But new authorship defending methods based on identifying individual writing patterns are already here. Their aim is to protect intellectual property. Using scientific methods, some of them can define authorship with 85% accuracy.
Writing is not an easy craft to master. If you want to write like a professional without plagiarism (抄袭)，there are a few lessons to learn and the first one is: “Copy from one, it’s plagiarism; copy from two, it’s research.” The correct interpretation of this statement is not about copying, but rather about creating your own style. When you study an author’s writing style, don’t stop on a single one, but explore numerous styles instead. Examine types of sentences they use, pay attention to their metaphors, and focus on stories you feel you could write a pretty cool sequel (续篇) to.
Imitation is rather paradoxical. As an integral part of learning, it brings about positive changes, making people develop and grow. However, it may do a lot of harm. Copying someone’s thoughts, ideas or inventions is completely unacceptable. It infringes on intellectual property rights of others.
Still, many things we do are about copying others one way or another. So if you want to compliment someone on the work they have done and imitate it, just make sure you do it the right way to avoid committing plagiarism.
