Immediate social bonding between strangers is highly dependent on mimicry

I would like to see two highly seasoned salespeople introduced to each other, each told beforehand that the person they are about to meet represents the biggest client of their life.

Some kind of droste effect in live action... amazing!

How would this work? Suppose A and B were meeting and each was supposed to mimic the other within a finite duration T. Since there must be a deal, somebody needs to initiate the action, triggering all subsequent mimicry. I suppose the starter could be arbitrary. Assume very perfect mimicry... what would result?

Perhaps it would be some kind of "purified," or "meta" form of salespersonhood; then, both would notice the intense recursion in each other, yet try to keep a straight face. The deal goes through as planned; everything seems pretty, but both are exhausted beyond belief.

Just an interpretation out of my own amusement.

Having grown up in a family business that was retail sales, I find myself doing this quite often, without realizing it.

I suppose part of it is just having social graces and putting someone at ease, but I feel like a bit of conman if meeting people who are very different from each other in quick succession and changing my behavior with each one.

Works on social websites as well, even though there's no body language involved. There's sorta a subtle culture to each website, a combinations of norms and in-jokes and tone and wording, and if you observe for a while you can catch the "pulse" of a site and fit right in once you de-lurk. That's why people tell you to "lurk before you leap".

Andy: Hello.

Michael: Ah, you must be Andy Bernard. Aloha and welcome!

Andy: And you must be Michael Scott. Aloha and … hello.

Michael (laughing): Ah ha! Very good! Welcome to our little kingdom. We have a bag of nifty gifties for you.

Andy: Michael, thank you for welcoming me to your little kingdom … Mike. Nifty!

Michael: They are nifty! They’re nifty gifties.

---

Michael: You know who I really like? Is this guy Andy Bernard. He has got this very likeable way about him.

Yes...I saw this article a few days ago and immediately thought of my project. The psychologica reasons people do the things they do is fascinating...and I think if you want to have a successful website/startup/etc you need to understand the human spirit and what makes it tick. I know I've thought a lot about incentives and what gets people hooked on a process...what rewards are available if a user follows a particular behavior. If you look at successful social networking sites you can see how these factors contribute to its success.

Speaking of mimicry, joeh and I were just talking about that on the way back from lunch just now. Maybe Hacker News is trying to mimic us.

applied to web work:

The site should mimic the user. Perhaps why yahoo is failing is because it is trying to be everyone's page .. google is winning cause it is just trying to be everyones search, (and casually everyone's everything with , reader and gmail)

Google mimics better. When im looking - Im looking for fast, streamlined experience.

Don't go using any of your NLP voodoo juju on me!