Is there a link between what you think about your computer and what you think about leprechauns? IBM, Apple, Microsoft, and US West are each paying Stanford University US$25,000 for a one-year membership in the Social Responses to Communication Technology consortium to find out.
Previous studies by researchers at the Department of Communication have shown that people attribute human personalities to computers. Now the researchers want to know if tiny faces on the screen elicit the same psychological responses as elves and leprechauns.
"Many cultures around the world assign magical properties to people who are small," says Stanford Professor Byron Reeves. "These small people grant wishes, they monitor behavior, and they keep people safe. But they also can punish, or be bad just for the hell of it."
"We want to know, when you see a small face on a screen, do you respond to it as if it were magical? Is it perceived as powerful or capable?" asks Stanford Professor Clifford Nass.
The answers could have implications for the design of video conferencing systems, personal digital assistants, large-screen projection TVs, and any communication technology that represents humanlike beings in any medium, the researchers say.
"When you sit down in front of a computer with certain characteristics, you bring to bear the expectations you have when you interact with a person," Nass says. "When the computer doesn't behave the way you want it to, you respond the same way you do when a human doesn't behave as expected: You get angry or draw conclusions, like the thing is nasty or it must be from another culture."
"There are important differences in sizes of faces, so it's important to pay attention to how you present pictures of human agents," Reeves says. In one recent study, the researchers found that large faces on the screen heighten emotional response - they elicit the same social response as people who invade your personal space.
"Our main goal is to heighten awareness about things engineers may not have realized are important," Nass says. "Often, critical questions are not even considered. It's like, 'Oh, just make it three inches - the important thing is it works.'"
"As technology grows, the interactions will change," says Adam Marx, technical staff member at US West Advanced Technologies, Boulder, Colorado. "But Stanford's research will be valuable all the way through - from voice, to video, to virtual reality. That will give us an edge other people don't have, in terms of design for usability."
Clifford Nass: +1 (415) 723 5499. E-mail: nass@leland.stanford.edu
ELECTRIC WORD
From Video Jock . . . . . . . to System Op
The Leprechaun Effect
