We also come to feel more positive about the people whose speech we mimic—an effect that holds true for imitation more generally. Emmanuel Roze has found that the experience of imitating patients makes the young doctors he trains more empathetic, as well as more comfortable with the signs of their patients’ disorders. Imitation permits us to extend to the other some of the familiar regard we feel for ourselves, as well as some of the insight we gain from inhabiting the role of dynamic actor in the world, rather than that of passive observer.
