Mirroring Vs Matching

Alright, here's a topic most of you probably haven't heard of before, I hadn't until this last year. There are two different main ways to help build trust and rapport with other people, they are called mirroring and matching. When you see best friends get together you'll notice that they tend to sound and act alike, right? Well, there's a biological reason for that.

Mirroring is when you "copy" another person, it's as if you are reflecting their behaviors back to them. When done with respect mirroring generally creates a positive relationship.

Matching is when there's a slight time lapse between their behavior and your behavior. For example, if someone sits and crosses their legs you wait a couple seconds before doing so yourself. 

This type of body language comprises 93% of our communication and it is so important to use these to your advantage. When building trust with another person it is very important that you consider your body language. We tend to do these things automatically with people we life and connect with, when we can start to use these techniques to our advantage in every day life we can enhance our relationships. 

Make sure when you are doing this that you aren't mimicking the other person, this comes off as disingenuous and disrespectful. Try not to consciously mirror and/or match every action another person performs. 

Do you usually mirror or match someone?