Copycats

Acknowledgments

The roots of this book go back a long way. Like all infants, I must have used imitation to learn how to communicate and master basic skills and, later in life, acquire social norms and mores. As an adult, I have learned the hard way that imitation is often well rewarded. Early in my scholarly career, a former classmate approached me in an academic conference to inquire about the research I was working on. Graciously, I disclosed the idea and provided a blueprint for its development and empirical investigation, including the source of data. It did not take long before I saw his copy in print, eventually forming the basis for his academic career in a center in a well-known urban university. As an older and hopefully wiser scholar, ...