TY - JOUR
T1 - Social Conformity in Immersive Virtual Environments
T2 - The Impact of Agents’ Gaze Behavior
AU - Kyrlitsias, Christos
AU - Michael-Grigoriou, Despina
AU - Banakou, Domna
AU - Christofi, Maria
N1 - Funding Information:
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 739578 and the Government of the Republic of Cyprus through the Directorate General for European Programmes, Coordination, and Development.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2020 Kyrlitsias, Michael-Grigoriou, Banakou and Christofi.
PY - 2020/9/8
Y1 - 2020/9/8
N2 - Immersive virtual reality (IVR) can induce an experience of “social presence” which can, in turn, increase social influence. Non-verbal behavior such as eye contact is an important component of human communication and, therefore, an important factor in creating social presence. This paper presents an experimental study that elaborates social influence through conformity with a group of virtual agents within an immersive virtual environment (IVE). Specifically, it investigates the impact of the agents’ gaze behavior on social presence and influence. An experiment based on the Asch (1951) paradigm using two levels of agents’ gaze behavior (Eye Contact condition vs. No-Eye Contact condition) was conducted. The results showed that participants conformed with the agents as they gave significantly more incorrect responses to the trials that the agents also gave an incorrect response, compared to those trials that the agents gave correct answers. However, no impact of the agents’ gaze behavior on conformity was observed, even if the participants in the Eye Contact condition reported a higher sense of social presence. In addition, self-reported measures showed a number of social effects that occurred only in the eye contact condition, indicating that the agents’ gaze behavior has an impact on participants’ experience.
AB - Immersive virtual reality (IVR) can induce an experience of “social presence” which can, in turn, increase social influence. Non-verbal behavior such as eye contact is an important component of human communication and, therefore, an important factor in creating social presence. This paper presents an experimental study that elaborates social influence through conformity with a group of virtual agents within an immersive virtual environment (IVE). Specifically, it investigates the impact of the agents’ gaze behavior on social presence and influence. An experiment based on the Asch (1951) paradigm using two levels of agents’ gaze behavior (Eye Contact condition vs. No-Eye Contact condition) was conducted. The results showed that participants conformed with the agents as they gave significantly more incorrect responses to the trials that the agents also gave an incorrect response, compared to those trials that the agents gave correct answers. However, no impact of the agents’ gaze behavior on conformity was observed, even if the participants in the Eye Contact condition reported a higher sense of social presence. In addition, self-reported measures showed a number of social effects that occurred only in the eye contact condition, indicating that the agents’ gaze behavior has an impact on participants’ experience.
KW - agents
KW - behavioral realism
KW - conformity
KW - eye contact
KW - social influence
KW - social presence
KW - virtual reality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091426545&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85091426545&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02254
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02254
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85091426545
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 11
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
M1 - 2254
ER -