The effects of visual proxemic information in video mediated communication

Abstract

One of the simplest examples of non-verbal communication is that of proximity, i.e. the distance at which conversants stand (or sit) from each other when interacting. This is known to be guided by certain social rules which take into account personal relationships, culture, personality and the purpose of the discussion, violation of which leads to various psychological and behavioural effects.One such effect is persuasion. Sales people will tend to approach customers closer than other business people. Video has in the past been shown to lead to more effective negotiation and bargaining than audio only conditions in experimental tasks. So far though, it remains unknown whether or not similar effects of proximity exist within video-mediated communication --- or indeed even whether or not proximity can be conveyed through video. This study investigates the role of the proxemic information within the video image in a formal persuasion environment using both subjective and objective measures of attitude and behaviour.A simulation of a customer seeking financial advice from an advisor across a live video link had two proxemic conditions --- the image of the advisor appearing either very close or far away. Subjective impressions of both the task and technology were analysed by questionnaire and showed no subjective differences between conditions. Structural analysis of the dialogues however, indicated customers to be more interactive in the close condition. When the advisor appeared close the customer spoke more often, said more, took longer and made more instances of overlapping speech. The similarity between these results and those of familiarity studies are discussed and a hypothesis of perceived close proximity resulting in perceived familiarity is offered.The study shows that proxemic information is preserved in video conferencing and produces effects similar to those of face-to-face interactions but less pronounced. This is explained by the video conveying only visual proxemic information compared to the multimodal information available in face-to-face interaction.