Transformed social interaction

Overview of TSI

Over time, our mode of remote communication has evolved from written letters to telephones, email, internet chat rooms, and videoconferences. Similarly, virtual reality (VR) promises to further change the nature of remote interaction. Collaborative VR systems track verbal and nonverbal signals of multiple interactants and render those signals onto avatars, three-dimensional, digital representations of people in a shared digital space. Unlike telephone conversations and videoconferences, interactants in virtual reality have the ability to systematically filter the physical appearance and behavioral actions of their avatars in the eyes of their conversational partners, amplifying or suppressing features and nonverbal signals in real-time for strategic purposes. These transformations have a drastic impact on interactants’ persuasive and instructional abilities. Furthermore, using VR, behavioral researchers can use this mismatch between performed and perceived behavior as a tool to examine complex patterns of nonverbal behavior with nearly perfect experimental control and great precision.

Academic Articles about Transformed Social Interaction

Bailenson, J.N., Yee, N., Patel, K., & Beall, A.C. (2007, in press). Detecting Digital Chameleons. Computers in Human Behavior.

Yee, N. & Bailenson, J.N. (2007, in press). The Proteus Effect: Self Transformations in Virtual Reality. Human Communication Research.

Yee, N., & Bailenson, J.N. (2006). Walk A Mile in Digital Shoes: The Impact of Embodied Perspective-Taking on The Reduction of Negative Stereotyping in Immersive Virtual Environments. Proceedings of PRESENCE 2006: The 9th Annual International Workshop on Presence. August 24 – 26, Cleveland , Ohio , USA

Bailenson, J. N. (2006). Transformed Social Interaction in Collaborative Virtual Environments. In Messaris, P. and Humphreys, L. (Ed.) Digital Media: Transformations in Human Communication. 255-264. New York: Peter Lang.

Bailenson, J.N., Yee, N., Blascovich, J., & Guadagno, R.E. (2006, in press). Transformed Social Interaction in Mediated Interpersonal Communication. In Konijn, E., Tanis, M., Utz, S. & Linden, A. (Eds.), Mediated Interpersonal Communication, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Bailenson, J.N., Garland , P., Iyengar, S., & Yee, N. (2006). Transformed Facial Similarity as a Political Cue: A Preliminary Investigation. Political Psychology, 27, 373-386.

Bailenson, J.N. & Beall, A.C. (2006). Transformed Social Interaction: Exploring the Digital Plasticity of Avatars. In Schroeder, R. & Axelsson, A.'s (Eds.), Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments, Springer-Verlag, 1-16.

Bailenson, J.N., Beall., A.C., Blascovich, J., Loomis, J., & Turk, M. (2005). Transformed Social Interaction, Augmented Gaze, and Social Influence in Immersive Virtual Environments. Human Communication Research, 31, 511-537.

Bailenson, J. N. & Yee, N. (2005). Digital Chameleons: Automatic assimilation of nonverbal gestures in immersive virtual environments. Psychological Science, 16, 814-819. (see video)

Bailenson, J.N., Beall, A.C., Loomis, J., Blascovich, J., & Turk, M. (2004). Transformed Social Interaction: Decoupling Representation from Behavior and Form in Collaborative Virtual Environments. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 13(4), 428-441.

Beall, A.C., Bailenson, J.N., Loomis, J., Blascovich, J., & Rex, C. (2003). Non-Zero-Sum Mutual Gaze in Collaborative Virtual Environments. Proceedings of HCI International, 2003, Crete.

Bailenson, J.N., Beall, A.C., Blascovich, J., Weisbuch, M., & Raimmundo, R. (2001). Intelligent Agents Who Wear Your Face: Users' Reactions to the Virtual Self. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 2190, 86-99.

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