Copying someone is often framed as negative, but positive social mimicry can be a healthy and essential part of life

Maybe you buy a new pair of trousers, wear them for a lunch date with a friend, then, the next week, you see the same pal sporting a carbon-copy look. Or perhaps you discuss an idea with a colleague who then brazenly claims it as her own during the next team meeting. ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ is a well-known proverb and sounds harmless enough, but when you include Oscar Wilde’s expansion of the saying: ‘… that mediocrity can pay to greatness’, it suggests there are two sides to the imitation game –a positive and a negative.

Being labelled ‘mediocre’ isn’t exactly a compliment, and it’s easy to imagine Wilde’s theatrical pomp as he delivered the phrase, perhaps to a group of equally opinionated peers. But things are different today. Love it or loathe it, this is the age of social media, where influencers are modern-day storytellers and copying how they dress or buying the products they favour is actively encouraged in the online world, blurring the line between where inspiration ends and imitation begins.

Sense of connection But what of real life? Imitation wasn’t invented by Wilde or, indeed, by influencers. And, thankfully, it isn’t that black and white. You need only look at a chameleon applying its camouflage tactics, or a baby babbling back to its parents’ chatter, to understand that mimicry is more natural, and its causes more obvious, than might first appear to be the case.