Situational determinants of cognitive,affective, and compassionate empathy in naturalistic digital interactions

Empathy is apparent in computer-mediated communication (CMC), yet little is known about the situational predictors of empathic responses when interacting digitally. We used a diary methodology to explore: (1) the degree three types of empathy (cognitive, affective, and compassionate) are experienced in students' everyday (text- and image-based) dyadic digital interactions; (2) which situational factors are important for (different types of) empathy in CMC; and (3) how empathy reported in everyday CMC affects participants' perceptions of their empathy in CMC and face-to-face (FtF) contexts. One hundred student volunteers (50 women, M_age = 22.57 years) completed a “digital interaction diary” for three consecutive days, yielding 1939 observations. Participants reported significantly more cognitive than affective empathy, and significantly greater affective than compassionate empathy. Several situational variables (e.g., number of communications, recipient) were related to empathy overall, while others (e.g., subject, mood) contributed to discrete contextual profiles for the empathy subtypes. Empathy reported in the diaries predicted a more favourable ratio of perceived CMC to FtF empathy, particularly for those lower in baseline trait empathy. These findings help elucidate the multidimensional experience of empathy in CMC interactions.     

From social anxiety to interpersonal connectedness: Relationship building within face-to-face,phone and instant messaging mediums

The present research examined whether social anxiety moderates the potential relationship between conversation medium and interpersonal connectedness. Hypotheses predicted that individuals with high social anxiety would demonstrate greater interpersonal connectedness following instant messaging conversations; whereas, individuals with low social anxiety would report greater interpersonal connectedness following face-to-face and phone conversations. Undergraduate participants (N = 165) were randomly assigned to one of three conversation mediums (face-to-face, phone or instant messaging) during which they engaged in an interaction with an unfamiliar partner. Participants completed a measure of social anxiety before the interaction and measures of interpersonal connectedness prior to and following the interaction. Results revealed that level of social anxiety is a significant contingent condition for the association between type of conversation medium and attitude homophily (i.e., a measure of interpersonal connectedness). For individuals with low social anxiety, scores on the attitude homophily measure were significantly lower in the instant messaging condition, compared to the face-to-face and phone conditions.     

A social network as information: The effect of system generated reports of connectedness on credibility on Twitter

Social media have gained increased usage rapidly for a variety of reasons. News and information is one such reason. The current study examines how system-generated cues available in social media impact perceptions of a source’s credibility. Participants were asked to view one of six mock Twitter.com pages that varied both the number of followers and the ratio between followers and follows on the page and report their perceived source credibility. Data indicate that curvilinear effects for number of followers exist, such that having too many or too few connections results in lower judgments of expertise and trustworthiness. Having a narrow gap between the number of followers and follows also led to increased judgments of competence. Implications of these findings are discussed, along with limitations of the current study and directions for future research.     

Cross-cultural deception in social networking sites and face-to-face communication

Deception research has been primarily studied from a Western perspective, so very little is known regarding how other cultures view deception. Cross-cultural deception research is important due to the escalation of cross-cultural communication. Therefore, this study proposes a framework for understanding the role Korean and American culture plays in deceptive behavior for both face-to-face (FTF) and computer-mediated communication (CMC). The goal of this paper is to test theoretical explanations about the role of culture in deception by the development of a set of hypotheses predicting the conditions under which deception is likely to emerge. A research strategy and construct measures to test the hypotheses are presented. Results from online questionnaires indicated Korean respondents exhibited greater collectivist values, lower levels of power distance, and higher levels of masculine values than Americans. Furthermore, deceptive behavior was greater for FTF communication than for CMC for both Korean and American respondents. In addition to a significant relationship between culture and deception, differences were found between espoused cultural values and deceptive behavior, regardless of national culture. These results indicate the need for future research to consider cultural differences when examining deceptive behavior.     

Facial expression and body gesture emotion recognition: A systematic review on the use of visual data in affective computing

Emotion is an important driver of human decision-making and communication. With the recent rise of human–computer interaction, affective computing has become a trending research topic, aiming to develop computational systems that can understand human emotions and respond to them. A systematic review has been conducted to fill these gaps since previous reviews regarding machine-enabled automated visual emotion recognition neglect important methodological aspects, including emotion models and hardware usage. 467 relevant papers were initially found and examined. After the screening process with specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, 30 papers were selected. Methodological aspects including emotion models, devices, architectures, and classification techniques employed by the selected studies were analyzed, and the most popular techniques and current trends in visual emotion recognition were identified. This review not only offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the topic but also provides researchers with insights regarding methodological aspects like emotion models employed, devices used, and classification techniques for automated visual emotion recognition. By identifying current trends, like the increased use of deep learning algorithms and the need for further study on body gestures, this review advocates the advantages of implementing emotion recognition with the use of visual data and builds a solid foundation for applying relevant techniques in different fields.     

Effects of gendered character representation on person perception and informational social influence in computer-mediated communication

Two experiments examined (a) if the gender of a randomly assigned character would affect individuals' inferences about an anonymous partner in computer-mediated communication (CMC) and (b) how the gender inference would moderate informational social influence. In Experiment 1, participants played a trivia game on a gender-biased topic (sports vs. fashion) with their ostensible partner via computer, represented by a gender-marked cartoon character. The results showed that both men and women, despite the arbitrary nature of character assignment, categorized the partner according to the character's gender. However, the effects of the gender inference on conformity were moderated by the topic and the participant's gender. First, when the topic matched the participant's gender, there was no character effect. Second, whereas women used “expertise heuristics”, exhibiting greater conformity to the male-charactered than female-charactered partner on a masculine topic, men displayed greater conformity to the male-charactered than female-charactered partner on a feminine topic, suggesting male resistance to female influence. Using a gender-neutral topic, Experiment 2 confirmed the explanations. Although the character triggered gender-stereotypical perception of the partner, when the gender was not diagnostic of expertise, the character's gender did not affect women's conformity behavior while men nonetheless showed greater conformity to the male-charactered partner.     

Fuzzy fusion for attending and responding assessment system of affective teaching goals in distance learning

Teachers can handle learning situations during activities in peer-to-peer classes, and assess student achievements associated with teaching goals in the affective domain. In distance learning, teachers cannot directly observe student states and assess achievement concurrently. Many distance education studies adopted frequency of interaction as the basis of student participation when assessing the student achievements in class. However, the number of times a student interacts is not equal to discussion quality. Although synchronous discussions during class can help teachers assess learning states, these discussions are not suited to all courses. If a teacher can supervise student images from computer’s webcam and observe student status, the teacher can assess achievement accurately. Image processing technology can be applied in an assessment system in distance learning, student states can be observed and these observational results can be combined with behavior detection to help teachers assess student achievement in terms of teaching goals in the affective domain.This study had analyzed the theory and method of assessing affective domain teaching goals. The assessment system had been implemented and simulated using image processing technology and records to analyze student achievement of attending and responding stages with a class period, via fuzzy logic and a fuzzy integral. Simulation results indicate that this assessment system can accurately assess student achievement in terms of attending and responding stages of affective domain teaching goals.     

The relevance of communication media in conflict contexts and their effectiveness: A negotiation experiment

Conflict negotiation is a communication process in which participants exchange huge amounts of cognitive and emotional information interactively to achieve a mutually acceptable solution regarding previous inconsistency. The present paper approaches this issue from the perspective of intervention in emotional negotiation by examining the moderating effect of communication media on the relationships between conflict contexts and their effectiveness. Given the different effectiveness of emotional delivery between face-to-face communication and computer-mediated communication, we hypothesize that the choice of communication media will ultimately affect negotiation effectiveness. A negotiation experiment was designed to test our research hypotheses. We find that face-to-face communication functions effectively in the functional conflict context, whereas computer-mediated communication functions effectively in dysfunctional conflict context.     

Dissecting emotion and user influence in social media communities: An interaction modeling approach

Human emotion expressed in social media plays an increasingly important role in shaping policies and decisions. However, the process by which emotion produces influence in online social media networks is relatively unknown. Previous works focus largely on sentiment classification and polarity identification but do not adequately consider the way emotion affects user influence. This research developed a novel framework, a theory-based model, and a proof-of-concept system for dissecting emotion and user influence in social media networks. The system models emotion-triggered influence and facilitates analysis of emotion-influence causality in the context of U.S. border security (using 5,327,813 tweets posted by 1,303,477 users). Motivated by a theory of emotion spread, the model was integrated in an influence-computation method, called the interaction modeling (IM) approach, which was compared with a benchmark using a user centrality (UC) approach based on social positions. IM was found to have identified influential users who are more broadly related to U.S. cultural issues. Influential users tended to express intense emotions of fear, anger, disgust, and sadness. The emotion trust distinguishes influential users from others, whereas anger and fear contributed significantly to causing user influence. The research contributes to incorporating human emotion into the data-information-knowledge-wisdom model of knowledge management and to providing new information systems artifacts and new causality findings for emotion-influence analysis.     

Exploration of problematic Internet use and social interaction anxiety among Turkish pre-service teachers

The current study investigated the relationship between problematic Internet use and social interaction anxiety among pre-service teachers. Participants were 1235 students attending teacher training programs at a Turkish state university. The “Problematic Internet Use Scale” and “Social Interaction Anxiety Scale” were used to collect the data. Independent-samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were conducted to examine the differences; and correlation and regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between variables. Findings revealed that male students’ use of the Internet was more problematic compared to female students’. As the time spent on the Internet increased, so did the problematic Internet use levels. In addition, the problematic Internet use levels of students varied with regard to departments. A significant relationship was found between the level of problematic Internet use and social interaction anxiety, and social interaction anxiety was found to be among the predictors of problematic Internet use. Implications and suggestions for further research are provided.     

The effect of a persuasive social impact game on affective learning and attitude

To investigate whether a persuasive social impact game may serve as a way to increase affective learning and attitude towards the homeless, this study examined the effects of persuasive mechanics in a video game designed to put the player in the shoes of an almost-homeless person. Data were collected from 5139 students in 200 middle/high school classes across four states. Classes were assigned to treatment groups based on matching. Two treatment conditions and a control group were employed in the study. All three groups affective learning and attitude scores decreased from the immediate posttest but the game group was significantly different from the control group in a positive direction. Students who played the persuasive social impact game sustained a significantly higher score on the Affective Learning Scale (ALS) and the Attitude Towards Homelessness Inventory (ATHI) after three weeks. Overall, findings suggest that when students play a video game that is designed using persuasive mechanics an affective and attitude change can be measured empirically.     

Educational interface agents as social models to influence learner achievement,attitude and retention of learning

This study examined the impacts of educational interface agents with different attributes on achievement, attitude and retention of elementary school students in their science and technology courses. The study was implemented in four different eighth- grade classes (aged 13–14) of an elementary school. Four different types of educational software, covering living things and life unit of 8th graders, were developed to analyze the impacts of educational software agents with different attributes on the results of learning. The study was conducted according to experimental model with pretest and posttest control group, which is one of the quasi-experimental designs. For five consecutive weeks experimental and control group students used the software designed for this research. The students were asked to fill an attitude scale on science and technology both before and after the implementation. And following completion, an achievement test was applied. The results of the study revealed that students who used a human-like educational interface agent were more successful than both the rest of the experimental groups and the control group in terms of achievement, attitude and retention of learning in science and technology classes. It is also revealed that the software to be developed for elementary school 8th graders (aged 13–14) should be supported with human-like educational interface agents.     

Students’ perceptions of teaching technologies, application of technologies, and academic performance

This study examined business students’ perceptions of four objectives (i.e., Enjoyment, Learning, Motivation, and Career Application) across five teaching technologies (i.e., Projector, PowerPoint, Video, the Internet, and Lecture), business professors’ effective application of technologies, and students’ academic performance. We collected data from 215 students at a regional state university in the USA. We developed Students’ Perceptions of Technology Scale, SPOTS, specifically for the present study, used the most rigorous criteria, and investigated reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and measurement invariance of this scale. Mean scores revealed that Video conveyed the highest amount of Enjoyment. PowerPoint provided the highest amount of Learning and Motivation. The Internet provided the highest Career Application for future jobs. Younger students preferred Video, whereas older students favored Lecture. Regression results showed that the use of Video for Learning, Projector and Lecture for Enjoyment, PowerPoint for career and Motivation, and the Internet for Learning contributed to professors’ teaching effectiveness. Students’ high ratings for professors’ effective use of the Lecture method and low expectation for the use of a Projector predicted their self-reported GPA (academic performance). Professors may use a different mix of technologies in the classroom and use them creatively in order to promote the most Learning for students and satisfy students’ Learning needs and objectives.     

Facebook usage,socialization and academic performance

This paper examines the impact of Facebook usage on students' academic performance. In addition, it also analyse whether Socialization influences Facebook usage. Empirical data was collected from 1165 Malaysian university students using a questionnaire survey. It was found that the construct Socially Accepted influences Facebook usage while Acculturation does not have any significant relationship with usage. The results also illustrated that there is a positive relationship between students' Academic Performance and Facebook usage i.e. the higher the usage the better they perceived they perform.     

How cognitive and affective aspects can influence the outcome of the group decision‐making process

Supporting group decision‐making when the decision makers are spread around the world is a complex process. The mechanisms of automated negotiation, such as argumentation, can be used in Ubiquitous Group Decision Support Systems (UbiGDSS) to help decision makers find a solution based on their preferences. However, the decision‐making process is much more than just a simple criteria and alternative analysis. There are many cognitive and affective issues that affect the outcome, and these issues should not be ignored; otherwise, the quality of the decision could be compromised. In this paper, we detail an UbiGDSS architecture and explore 2 cognitive and affective methods that are essential to the group decision‐making process. We explain how agents can reason about self‐expertise and other decision makers' credibility, and how agents can verify and react to tendencies throughout the decision‐making process. We intend agents to achieve higher quality and more consensual decisions. In any simulation environment that we tested, agents that analysed credibility, expertise, and/or analysed tendencies always achieved a higher consensus compared to agents that used neither of the proposed methods. Likewise, agents that used neither of the proposed methods or only performed tendencies analysis obtained the worst average satisfaction levels for each simulation environment.     

The function of self-disclosure on social network sites: Not only intimate,but also positive and entertaining self-disclosures increase the feeling of connection

How can social network sites (SNS) foster relationships when most status updates on SNS are mainly entertaining and not very intimate? This finding cannot be explained by classical social psychological theories such as social penetration theory which regard disclosure intimacy as the main driver of relational outcomes. By building on literature on the role of capitalization and humor in relationship formation and maintenance, this paper suggests two alternative paths from public self-disclosure to relational outcomes. Respondents judged the content and relational effects of own and friends’ status updates as well as private conversations. In general, all types of messages were mainly positive and entertaining. The more intimate communication took place in private conversations; here, the classical link between disclosure intimacy and feeling connected still held. However, positive and entertaining self-disclosures also increased the feeling of connection, especially when reading friends’ updates. Interestingly, interaction partners’ responsiveness did not play a significant role, indicating that results from dyadic face-to-face interactions do not hold for public communication on social media. The study contributes to the development of a more differentiated model on the role of self-disclosure on SNS.     

Relationship between the level of intimacy and lurking in online social network services

The rapid growth of online social network services (SNSs) leads to new research questions. Unlike in other online communities, people in SNSs expect to gratify social-emotional needs rather than informational needs, and they are connected in a person-to-person manner which is more direct and interpersonal. The author argued that the factors influencing members’ public posting in SNSs differ from those in traditional online communities. Interpersonal intimacy was postulated to influence lurking behaviors in SNSs. To investigate the relationship between intimacy level and posting frequency in SNSs, an online survey was conducted in Wallop, a SNS provided by Microsoft. Responses (102) were collected, in which the first 40 posters and the first 40 lurkers were selected for statistical analysis. The result shows significant differences exist in both verbal and affective intimacy level between lurkers and posters. The level of verbal intimacy and the level of affective intimacy are positively correlated with posting frequency. The result of discriminant analysis shows that verbal intimacy and affective intimacy are useful for discriminating posting/lurking groups of users. In addition, significant gender differences in perceived intimacy and posting behaviors were found. The result implies that people lurk in SNSs because they believe that their social-emotional needs may not be satisfied even if they post.     

Notification pending: Online social support from close and nonclose relational ties via Facebook

Previous research has often assumed social support as a unique affordance of close relationships. Computer-mediated communication alters the availability of relationally nonclose others, and may to enable additional sources or social support through venues like social networking sites. Eighty-eight college students completed a questionnaire based on their most recent Facebook status updates and the comments those updates generated. Items queried participants’ perception of each response as well as the participants’ relationship closeness with the responder. Individuals perceived as relationally close provide significant social support via Facebook; however, individuals perceived to be relationally nonclose provided equal social support online. While SNSs has not eroded the importance of close relationships, results demonstrate the social media tools may allow for social support to be obtained from nonclose as well as close relationships, with access to a significant proportion of nonclose relationships.