Innate tendency to imitate others

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I find that I have a very automatic tendency to imitate the social mannerisms of certain people (or fictional characters) I have been exposed to most recently. This isn't intentional; it happens automatically, and often it isn't even that desirable.

I recently was watching the amazing television show The Wire, and after spending a day glued to my computer watching episode after episode I found that I was starting to use the mannerisms and slang speech that some of the black gangster characters use (I'm white and super nerdy just to give you the full picture). I don't think this was extreme enough that people would think I'm trying to be 'black', but I felt like I was subtly phrasing things with inflection/tone and using vocabulary that is characteristic of people on the show.

Does anyone else have this tendency? It almost makes me feel like a social chameleon, where I don't have a solid enough social identity so I am always slightly imitating the last person I observed in detail. Is this considered more of a NT tendency or more a result of ASD?

I do that as well, mostly with terms of speech and facial expressions.

It's just a form of "protective colouration" for me, I don't mind it and I can generally keep myself from doing it if I don't want to.

I tend to imitate whoever I'm talking to. I catch myself imitating their speech patterns, phrases, my voice getting louder or softer to match theirs, and so on. As soon as I stop interacting with them I snap out of it and go back to my usual habits.

First of all, I love The Wire! Probably my favorite TV show of all time, tied with Battlestar Galactica (the re-imagining, not the original). Seasons 1,4, and 3, respectively, are the greatest seasons of TV ever in my opinion. Omar and Bubbles are amazing characters, both in conception and execution. The whole cast of characters are well written and well acted, but Bubbles and Omar really shine.

That said, I've kind of been in the same situation (it took me forever to stop saying things like "ya feel me?" and pronouncing the words "police" and "two" as "Poe-lease" and "tiu" respectively). Hell, recently I got really into the show Firefly (watched the show in its entirety in one day. And Serenity), and I've kind of come to notice a bit of a southern twang in my voice, like the characters from the show. I live in the south now, so it doesn't stand out too much, but it's enough for me to notice (I grew up in New York, )

This happens to me all the time. While I have learned to control my way of speaking somewhat, I also find that if I have watched a show recently, that the face of some character or other from that show will impale itself on the back of my eyelids, and I can't erase it. Very annoying.

I watch a lot of Canadian sci-fi so, yeah, the same thing happens to me. I sometimes pick of the speech style of some people I know, like my 18 year old niece. One interesting thing is since living with my sister it sounds to me that she sometimes has the same accent of the mother on Parenthood (Max's mother) and I don't think she has ever watched an episode. I wonder if I am giving her that accent because she is taking on a motherly position?

I kind of like my Dr. Daniel Jackson mimicry.

My friend knows a boy with AS who has an American accent only because of watching The Simpsons.

I used to get really drunk and become Gwen Cooper from Torchwood. She's Welsh, just so you know.

Happens to me too. It's probably a way our minds automatically develope to learn and assimilate social skills.

ugh, flashbacks to the time, when I was a kid, and the canadian cousins came for a visit-- I'm afraid I embarassed myself ... yes, I definitly have a problem with inadvertant imitation. Easier to control now, at my age, but still all too easy....

Yeah, I imitate accents without thinking about it.

I had a teacher back in elementary school with a really thick Boston accent. She thought I was making fun of her, but fortunately thought it was funny.

Same thing with an acquaintance from Canada.

One Monday morning, after spending the weekend with a cousin from North Carolina, a customer asked me what part of the South I was from.

Back in my late teens, I traveled to California to do activist work. I worked with a lot of Mexicans, and soon picked up their accent. I had people ask me if I missed Mexico!

fleurdelily, pensieve, mds_02, hartzofspace, i pick up accents too! i was watching a documentary about new york and started talking like the interviewees. and i have to intentionally NOT talk like my boyfriend (he lives in manchester) when i am having a conversation with him.

also, i would like to apologise on behalf of canada for having such a silly accent.

I do this too. I think we all do it to some extent, meaning even non-AS people. I think psychologists call it mirroring and we do it subconsciously to gain acceptance from the other person.