Hesitations about Transformed Social Interaction

By Katarina Ling

SymSys 205: Systems: Theory, Science, and Metaphor

Spring 2005

Avatars in CVEs (Collaborative Virtual Environments), which would make it possible to have three dimensional, more real conversations with people who are far away, seems like a wonderful technology advancement. These avatars can even convey subtle body language movements, such as the raising of eyebrows and shrugging. Being able to finally have a non-zero sum mutual gaze would seem to promote better discourse as well.

Yet, there are a number of concerns I have with substituting face to face interaction, or even video-conferencing with CVEs. As briefly acknowledged by the Bailenson, Beall, and Turk paper, the primary issue is that it seems to easily manipulated and too far removed from reality. I would like to provide more detailed arguments and counterarguments in this commentary.

One might argue that the phone is a simulated voice and the video in the video conferencing is a bunch of pixels dancing upon a screen – that might not even have the same likeness as the person I am communicating with. That is true, but at least it gives the illusion of reality, and it seems to be the case that you have that person’s full attention. Attention is Zero Sum.

With avatars and non zero sum mutual gaze, that person might not even be facing me. Or to be more extreme, is actually off wandering somewhere else and talking with others while I think she is still listening attentively. Perhaps ignorance is bliss? Maybe I would be a better speaker if I thought she was paying attention. Yet, I am uncomfortable with simulating to this extent – to the point of deception.

It is sometimes important to read the subconscious body language of someone. For example, if I am explaining a concept to another student face to face, and she does not understand me, she may have a confused look, perhaps twitch her lip slightly, or even look off to the side. Yet, in a remote conference, she may control her avatar to look as if the avatar understands and is attentively taking note of what I say. The situation would be better for us both if I could read her facial expressions and explain more in depth or review the topic without explicitly mentioning that. She would not lose face (figuratively), and I would be able to ensure that she understands.

You might say that she could pretend she understood in our face to face meeting. While that is true, I believe that it would be much more difficult to actually hold an actual facial expression than to have a avatar maintain a default expression. The opposite, someone actually maintaining an unwavering gaze but rendering herself to look down at her shoes, might convey the wrong idea to me. I might think she’s uninterested in what I have to say and end prematurely.

I also feel that if people are able to choose to represent themselves in a morphed look, combining their features and mine (or with someone I trust), and thus be more effective in persuading me, I would be in a sense taken advantage of. I might also have incentive to morph my look with theirs, so as to be better at persuading. It would no longer be the power of my speech or the skill in my negotiation, but simply the fact that I look like the other. There may even be an extreme situation in which we both take on identical physical appearances after morphing, or exchanged appearances. It would be too comical for a serious negotiation.

Finally, having the ability of someone to step in for me if I get tired in a meeting without my client knowing we have switched people seems great from my view point. But if I were the client, and I wanted to be talking with the CEO and not his technical writer, I would be uncomfortable with the possibility of their trading places.

In the end, even if none of the people I interact with in a CVE is doing anything deceptive, just knowing about the ease of deceiving me is enough to make me reconsider embracing CVEs all at once.

Reference

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.