Moderators of Social Facilitation Effect in Virtual Reality: Co-presence and Realism of Virtual Agents

Strojny, Paweł; Dużmańska-Misiarczyk, Natalia; Lipp, Natalia; Strojny, Agnieszka

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01252

Cited by 26 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The current study can be interpreted as preliminary evidence that social presence plays an important role in how evaluative behaviors of agents in VR are experienced. In research on the conditions that enable the processing of social stimuli in VR in a similar fashion to outside VR, Strojny et al (2020) found that copresence and realism were moderators on social facilitation effects i.e., the effect of virtual agents being present (analogous to humans outside VR being present) was dependent on the agents' perceived social realism. Despite the differences in context and methodology, the similarity in findings and our finding of a more reliable effect for social presence further pronounces the importance of focusing on social presence when intending to increase effects of social settings in VR.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Presence as a Moderator of the Effect of Agent Behavior on Emotional Experience in Social Interactions in Virtual Reality

Pfaller

Kroczek

Lange³

et al. 2021

Front. Virtual Real.

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Background: Exposure therapy involves exposure to feared stimuli and is considered to be the gold-standard treatment for anxiety disorders. While its application in Virtual Reality (VR) has been very successful for phobic disorders, the effects of exposure to virtual social stimuli in Social Anxiety Disorder are heterogeneous. This difference has been linked to demands on realism and presence, particularly social presence, as a pre-requisite in evoking emotional experiences in virtual social interactions. So far, however, the influence of social presence on emotional experience in social interactions with virtual agents remains unknown.Objective: We investigated the relationship between realism and social presence and the moderating effect of social presence on the relationship between agent behavior and experienced emotions in virtual social interaction.Methods: Healthy participants (N = 51) faced virtual agents showing supportive and dismissive behaviors in two virtual environments (short interactions and oral presentations). At first, participants performed five blocks of short one-on-one interactions with virtual agents (two male and two female agents per block). Secondly, participants gave five presentations in front of an audience of 16 agents. In each scenario, agent behavior was a within subjects factor, resulting in one block of neutral, two blocks of negative, and two blocks of positive agent behavior. Ratings of agent behavior (valence and realism), experience (valence and arousal), and presence (physical and social) were collected after every block. Moderator effects were investigated using mixed linear models with random intercepts. Correlations were analyzed via repeated measures correlations.Results: Ratings of valence of agent behaviors showed reliable relationships with experienced valence and less reliable relationships with experienced arousal. These relationships were moderated by social presence in the presentation scenario. Results for the interaction scenario were weaker but potentially promising for experimental studies. Variations in social presence and realism over time were correlated but social presence proved a more reliable moderator.Conclusion: Our findings emphasize the role of social presence for emotional experience in response to specific agent behaviors in virtual social interactions. While these findings should be replicated with experimental designs and in clinical samples, variability in social presence might account for heterogeneity in efficacy of virtual exposure to treat social anxiety disorder.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Presence as a Moderator of the Effect of Agent Behavior on Emotional Experience in Social Interactions in Virtual Reality

Pfaller

Kroczek

Lange³

et al. 2021

Front. Virtual Real.

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“…Our findings also contribute to theories of presence; contrary to recent conceptualizations (e.g., Oh et al, 2018), our results suggest that copresence can and should be disentangled from other constructs that have been included in the definition of copresence as a multidimensional concept. Nonetheless, copresence remains a desired outcome for social interactions with robots (e.g., Herath et al, 2018) and VHs alike (e.g., Strojny et al, 2020), and this investigation highlights how contextual responsiveness aids in facilitating copresence. In testing the effects of contextual responsiveness in a collaborative MR setting, we also establish avenues for further research into situational (collaborative vs. competitive task) and contextual factors (familiar vs. unfamiliar space) that may shape users' affective and cognitive evaluations of VHs.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 69%

Copresence With Virtual Humans in Mixed Reality: The Impact of Contextual Responsiveness on Social Perceptions

Pimentel

Vinkers

2021

Front. Robot. AI

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Virtual humans (VHs)—automated, three-dimensional agents—can serve as realistic embodiments for social interactions with human users. Extant literature suggests that a user’s cognitive and affective responses toward a VH depend on the extent to which the interaction elicits a sense of copresence, or the subjective “sense of being together.” Furthermore, prior research has linked copresence to important social outcomes (e.g., likeability and trust), emphasizing the need to understand which factors contribute to this psychological state. Although there is some understanding of the determinants of copresence in virtual reality (VR) (cf. Oh et al., 2018), it is less known what determines copresence in mixed reality (MR), a modality wherein VHs have unique access to social cues in a “real-world” setting. In the current study, we examined the extent to which a VH’s responsiveness to events occurring in the user’s physical environment increased a sense of copresence and heightened affective connections to the VH. Participants (N = 65) engaged in two collaborative tasks with a (nonspeaking) VH using an MR headset. In the first task, no event in the participant’s physical environment would occur, which served as the control condition. In the second task, an event in the participants’ physical environment occurred, to which the VH either responded or ignored depending on the experimental condition. Copresence and interpersonal evaluations of the VHs were measured after each collaborative task via self-reported measures. Results show that when the VH responded to the physical event, participants experienced a significant stronger sense of copresence than when the VH did not respond. However, responsiveness did not elicit more positive evaluations toward the VH (likeability and emotional connectedness). This study is an integral first step in establishing how and when affective and cognitive components of evaluations during social interactions diverge. Importantly, the findings suggest that feeling copresence with VH in MR is partially determined by the VHs’ response to events in the actual physical environment shared by both interactants.

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“…Specifically, participants who reported a stronger social presence were more inclined to accept the VH's offer in an ultimatum game. The impact of social presence on social influence is demonstrated by other studies (e.g., Hoyt et al, 2003;Strojny, Dużmańska-Misiarczyk, Lipp and Strojny, 2020). Consequently, the greater the sense of the users' social presence for a VH, the more realistic (similar to human-human and face-to-face) their social reactions are.…”

Section: Social Presencementioning

confidence: 72%

Social Interaction With Agents and Avatars in Immersive Virtual Environments: A Survey

Kyrlitsias

Michael-Grigoriou

2022

Front. Virtual Real.

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Immersive virtual reality technologies are used in a wide range of fields such as training, education, health, and research. Many of these applications include virtual humans that are classified into avatars and agents. An overview of the applications and the advantages of immersive virtual reality and virtual humans is presented in this survey, as well as the basic concepts and terminology. To be effective, many virtual reality applications require that the users perceive and react socially to the virtual humans in a realistic manner. Numerous studies show that people can react socially to virtual humans; however, this is not always the case. This survey provides an overview of the main findings regarding the factors affecting the social interaction with virtual humans within immersive virtual environments. Finally, this survey highlights the need for further research that can lead to a better understanding of human–virtual human interaction.

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Moderators of Social Facilitation Effect in Virtual Reality: Co-presence and Realism of Virtual Agents

Cited by 26 publications

References 48 publications

Social Presence as a Moderator of the Effect of Agent Behavior on Emotional Experience in Social Interactions in Virtual Reality

Social Presence as a Moderator of the Effect of Agent Behavior on Emotional Experience in Social Interactions in Virtual Reality

Copresence With Virtual Humans in Mixed Reality: The Impact of Contextual Responsiveness on Social Perceptions

Social Interaction With Agents and Avatars in Immersive Virtual Environments: A Survey

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