Download file Mimicry resonance

Mimic resonance is a concept from applied communication psychology, based on the work of Dirk Eilert, that describes the ability to perceive, decode, and translate micro-expressions – fleeting, involuntary facial expressions that last only fractions of a second – into emotional messages. These micro-expressions, originally researched by Paul Ekman, are considered universal and cross-cultural: contempt, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise, and anger all manifest in identical facial patterns, even when people try to hide these feelings. As a special topic in literature, mimic resonance opens up an asymmetrical power dynamic: a character who can read faces like others read a book moves through a social world full of unintentional confessions. In interrogation situations, negotiations, or everyday conversations, this character becomes the invisible superior. Particularly interesting is the flip side: what happens when someone knows they are being read – and trains their face to become a mask?