{"id":147,"date":"2008-11-24T11:00:31","date_gmt":"2008-11-24T15:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/?p=147"},"modified":"2008-11-19T18:38:14","modified_gmt":"2008-11-19T22:38:14","slug":"spark-blog-mimicking-alans-body-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/behind-the-scenes\/spark-blog-mimicking-alans-body-language\/147\/","title":{"rendered":"Spark Blog: Mimicking Alan’s Body Language"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alan Alda takes turns describing photos with Tanya\u2019s confederate, Amy Dalton, who is discreetly mimicking his postures and movements. Photo by Larry Engel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Durham, NC<\/p>\n

Today we\u2019ve just finished shooting here at Duke University a series of experiments with Tanya Chartrand on how we humans unconsciously mimic each other, and how doing so helps us become more social.<\/p>\n

Our social nature will be a major theme of The Human Spark<\/em> \u2013 and it came up again today when Tanya made Alan the unwitting participant in a study of social mimicry. I\u2019d kept Alan in the dark about today\u2019s filming, so he had no idea what to expect when we sat him down in a room with a graduate student, who was described for him as a fellow participant in a study in interpreting pictures. In fact she subtly mimicked Alan\u2019s body language \u2013 so subtly that he never caught on, but that should, if he was typical of the subjects in Tanya\u2019s study, have made him feel more benign.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Alan<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alan and Tanya discuss her mimicry study while viewing footage from the hidden cameras in the testing room. Photo by Larry Engel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Alan and Tanya got so into the findings and implications of her research that it was hard knowing when to call cut, and when I did they\u2019d simply set off on a new tack that soon had us rolling the camera again.<\/p>\n

The day finished as days on the road with Alan usually do, dinner with the crew, going over what had happened during the shoot, enjoying the things that had gone both right and not quite as we expected \u2013 often the best moments \u2013 and speculating about the next shoot, which will be yet another angle on the Spark; a day at the North Carolina Zoo about an hour and half\u2019s drive from here talking with Brian Hare about cooperation among chimpanzees, and how it is similar or different from human cooperation.<\/p>\n

— Graham Chedd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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