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Eye Contact Will Influence Man-Machine Interaction
atari_kid writes "ScienceDaily is running a story about a researcher findings on the importance of eye contact in group communications. More importantly, the findings show how the amount of eye contact one receives in a group will effect the number of turns one can take in a discussion. What is interesting about the study his how it will effect the design of the future communication devices, like for example: 'Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) which support communication between people and machines.' The research findings will be also used to facilitate user interactions with devices like PDA's and cell phones. I wonder if the findings could explain why the 'beautiful people' have such influence on the mass media."
So this means that if I wanted to become really dominant in a conversation, I could bribe a couple of the participators to look at me once in a while, and rarely at my "opponent"? Hmmm suddenly I realize that a sales team should never ever consist of under ten people...
I am a rehabilitation/social worker for the blind and visually impaired... a great percentage of the world population has eye conditions, in which eye contact is difficult as a result of poor focus, strabismus, to name a few. When communicating with someone who is visually impaired, many other key stimulus must be realized. A blind or visually impaired person may show body language suggesting their desire to speak, or simply wait-out, at which point, people usually listen to the quiet group member. I think that using eye-contact as a variable in online group meetings is an interesting idea, but many other considerations must be met.
one study done on virtual teams that spent a long time interacting via the internet, and then brought together for a brief time period to interact spent most of their time just introducing themselves to each other.
apparently, interaction with each other is more than just talking to one another,(mail qualifies for that, or say video attachments on mails)
co(g)ito, ergo sum : I get screwed at school, so i must be alive.
I've seen an applications where users had to interact with a software agent that used different 'gaze policies'.
It's really hard to take it serious that some piece of software is looking at you. Cause you know it isn't, at least not in the way humans do. Eye-contact is very important in human-humon interaction, but in human-machine interaction, I really don't see a point in it. Just my opinion..
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Wondering if this study could shape some ideas in driving Video Conferencing technology - I know from my experiences the most offputting aspect of participating in VCs is people not looking at you while talking, due to the locations of monitors and cameras not synching.
As an aside, why was the link from the main page to the ScienceDaily web site, when the article clearly has a link to the original from Queens University ????
the quality of a woman's interaction with a group of males can be measured by the amount of eye contact with her breasts
You forgot to mention whether it was proportional or inversely proprtional, what effect the size of the breasts, and whether the other interacters were male or female. This is ambiguous.
Sorry to be facetious -- you are the messenger. I remember any number of studies reporting that in univeristy classes, men talked far more and were more likely to interrupt, not just each other but more so female students, and also female instructors. This isn't an indictment of anyone, but a statistical fact, and I'm curious what should be done about it. First off, avert your eyes from the breasts of your colleagues.
I wonder about how cultural differences in eye contact would affect this kind of study. I can't imagine that in many parts of Asia, where eye contact is rude in many contexts, that the results would be the same.
Seems like a recipe for keeping meetings productive. Make lots of eye contact with the people who are most likely to affect the meeting outcome you desire. For me, this is usually making the meeting end quickly.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
Mr. Kruschev did not take off his shoe and bang it angrily on the table.
Oh, he banged a shoe angrily on the table all right, but *he didn't take it off.*
If you examine film footage of the event very carefully you'll notice one very interesting fact, Senor Kruschev is *wearing both his shoes.*
Messr. Kruschev was not just some angry ape given to bizarre fits of pique. One did not survive under the Stalinist purges to rise to party leadership by not being a very clever, perceptive and *manipulative* man.
The Honorable Kruschev actually *brought a shoe to the meeting hall with him* with the express intent of banging it on the table! The whole thing was cleverly staged.
KFG
Did it ever occur to these researchers that maybe the reason someone receives 'eye time' because they are already established as the dominant participant in the exchange? It could be from physical appearance, (perceived) intelligence and expertise in the subject at hand, etc. etc. It just seems like they are missing the point, and mixing up cause and effect.
Eye contact is highly cultural: direct eye contact has different meanings to different people. In Europe and America it signifies attentiveness and interest, but elsewhere it can mean aggression and disrespect --
This kind of research is important in developing better computer interface, and human communication tools, but these tools need to adapt to many styles and codes of communication, as well.
VOS/Interreality project: www.interreality.org
Do people still make eye contact?
In some areas, eye contact is considered threatening. In others, it is considered a show of sincerity and honesty.
I come from an area where eye contact is good, and unfortunately I think I am living in an area where it makes people uncomfortable. In turn, it is uncomfortable for me when I make people uncomfortable.
It would be interesting to see a study on personality types versus eye contact and geographic area vs. eye contact and how to deal with differences in perceptions of eye contact. This would help me feel more comfortable in daily life and from what I gather would help a lot of others, too.
Any interesting sources anyone can point to?
Hehehehe. This reminds me of a little experiment done to our social psych professor. It demonstrates the power of attention, but also shaping (gradual conditioning) in a rather insidious form.
The class had been studying shaping -- where you don't condition for an end behaviour but for an intermediate, easier one. Then when you have that, you shape to the next behaviour in a chain, repeating as necessary. That way, you can condition complicated behaviours that would occur too infrequently by chance to reward the pattern.
The idea was to pay our prof more or less attention the more or less he did a specific behaviour, and we chose teaching from one side of the stage rather than the other (in this case, reinforcing stage left, our right). Was probably good that only about 20 people were in on it, otherwise it might have been too obvious. But when he'd wander to our left, we'd stare at our books, scratch our heads, frown, slouch, and never make eye contact. If he moved to our right, we'd sit up a little straighter, look at him, and basically show we were paying attention. Well, if you ever have a glance around a sizable class, you know there are seldom many people giving their complete attention anyway, unless the prof is riveting. It only took a few classes to have him spending most of his time to the right of the lectern. We kept this up for nearly a month, at which point he basically taught the class from a window sill on the right edge of the room. Most impressivly, he didn't know what was going on. Most likely he just felt "most comfortable" there. Hehehehehehe.
People love to slag psychology but everyone acknowledges the importance of things like "eye contact." It's time we started giving these things some credit. Like the previous poster noting the power a "team of salespeople" could have, this can be powerful stuff.
This is interesting but what about the fact that in diffent cultures eye contact is considered rude or a chalange of ones authority?
Will the software have some sort of flag that would reverse the values if the user happens to be japanese or certian native american tribes?
Also what about people who are shy or have low self esteem. They would become electronic outcasts just as in real life.
Another interesting tidbit about Kruschev is the mistranslation of the phrase "We will bury you". (Another popular misconception is that he said this during the shoe-banging incident)
A more accurate translation would have been something like "we will be at your burial" with the more passive meaning that communism will outlast democracy, not the active meaning, suggested by 'bury', that they planned to kill us.
My source for this was my Russian professor in college but I just also found some colloborating evidence in this paper about the difficulties of translation.