Early Development of Overimitation in Infants and Its Relation to Social Preferences

Humans are naturally social beings, with a strong inclination to seek acceptance within their in-group. This social drive manifests early in life, as studies have shown that preschool children imitate adult actions to acquire skills, share cultural knowledge, and establish social bonds. A particular form of imitation called overimitation involves copying actions that are unnecessary for achieving a task. While research has extensively examined overimitation in children aged three to five, little is known about its presence in children under two years old.

A recent study conducted by researchers from Concordia University, published in rontiers in Developmental Psychology, explores how overimitation emerges in infants aged between 16 and 21 months and whether it is linked to social affiliation and other types of imitation. Lead researcher Marilyne Dragon explained that adults and even dogs tend to overimitate because they want to affiliate with those demonstrating the actions, aiming to show kinship or similarity.

The study found that infants in this age group engage in overimitation at low levels, and notably, this behavior was not driven by in-group preferences. In other words, infants werent imitate to please or align with similar others. Instead, overimitation for social bonding appears to develop later in childhood. The researchers also discovered that other forms of imitation associated with memory and cognitive processes show a closer relationship with these early behaviors.

The study involved 73 children averaging 18 months of age who completed four different imitation tasks, such as opening a box with irrelevant steps, copying a sequence of actions to remember a task, replicating actions with unfulfilled intentions, and a preference test where children chose between a woman and a robot displaying similar actions. Results indicated that only the memory-related and unfulfilled intention tasks correlated with each other, while overimitation did not depend on perceived in-group similarity.

According to Dragon, there may be a developmental link between overimitation and in-group preference that becomes more evident around four and a half years old, when children tend to prefer peers who resemble them in gender and ethnicity. This suggests that overimitation may be intertwined with understanding group membership and social identity as children grow.

The findings highlight the importance of further research into how overimitation develops and its significance in childhood. For parents and educators, understanding that children naturally imitate even unnecessary actions underscores the need to model critical and functional behavior. As Dragon emphasizes, fostering critical thinking skills by mindful interaction can support healthier developmental pathways.

The study provides valuable insights into the early stages of social learning and cognition, emphasizing that imitation is a complex behavior rooted in both memory and social motivation, which evolves as children grow.

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-overimitation-infancy-linked-group.html