Social Rapport Research Articles

Digital screener of socio-motor agency balancing motor autonomy and motor control.

Dyadic social interactions evoke complex dynamics between two agents that, while exchanging unequal levels of body autonomy and motor control, may find a fine balance to synergize, take turns, and gradually build social rapport. To study the evolution of such complex interactions, we currently rely exclusively on subjective pencil and paper means. Here, we complement this approach with objective biometrics of socio-motor behaviors conducive to socio-motor agency. Using a common clinical test as the backdrop of our study to probe social interactions between a child and a clinician, we demonstrate new ways to streamline the detection of social readiness potential in both typically developing and autistic children by uncovering a handful of tasks that enable quantification of levels of motor autonomy and levels of motor control. Using these biometrics of autonomy and control, we further highlight differences between males and females and uncover a new data type amenable to generalizing our results to any social setting. The new methods convert continuous dyadic bodily biorhythmic activity into spike trains and demonstrate that in the context of dyadic behavioral analyses, they are well characterized by a continuous Gamma process that can classify individual levels of our thus defined socio-motor agency during a dyadic exchange. Finally, we apply signal detection processing tools in a machine learning approach to show the validity of the streamlined version of the digitized ADOS test. We offer a new framework that combines stochastic analyses, non-linear dynamics, and information theory to streamline and facilitate scaling the screening and tracking of social interactions with applications to autism.

Effectiveness of a Parent-Based eHealth Intervention for Physical Activity, Dietary Behavior, and Sleep Among Preschoolers: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Preschoolers' lifestyles have become physically inactive and sedentary, their eating habits have become unhealthy, and their sleep routines have become increasingly disturbed. Parent-based interventions have shown promise to improve physical activity (PA), improve dietary behavior (DB), and reduce sleep problems among preschoolers. However, because of the recognized obstacles of face-to-face approaches (eg, travel costs and time commitment), easy access and lower costs make eHealth interventions appealing. Previous studies that examined the effectiveness of parent-based eHealth for preschoolers' PA, DB, and sleep have either emphasized 1 variable or failed to balance PA, DB, and sleep modules and consider the intervention sequence during the intervention period. There is an acknowledged gap in parent-based eHealth interventions that target preschoolers raised in Chinese cultural contexts. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a parent-based eHealth intervention for PA, DB, and sleep problems among Chinese preschoolers. This 2-arm, parallel, randomized controlled trial comprises a 12-week intervention with a 12-week follow-up. A total of 206 parent-child dyads will be randomized to either an eHealth intervention group or a control group. Participants allocated to the eHealth intervention group will receive 12 interactive modules on PA, DB, and sleep, with each module delivered on a weekly basis to reduce the sequence effect on variable outcomes. The intervention is grounded in social cognitive theory. It will be delivered through social media, where parents can obtain valid and updated educational information, have a social rapport, and interact with other group members and facilitators. Participants in the control group will receive weekly brochures on PA, DB, and sleep recommendations from kindergarten teachers, but they will not receive any interactive components. Data will be collected at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. The primary outcome will be preschoolers' PA. The secondary outcomes will be preschoolers' DB, preschoolers' sleep duration, preschoolers' sleep problems, parents' PA, parenting style, and parental feeding style. Parent-child dyads were recruited in September 2023. Baseline and posttest data collection occurred from October 2023 to March 2024. The follow-up data will be obtained in June 2024. The results of the study are expected to be published in 2025. The parent-based eHealth intervention has the potential to overcome the barriers of face-to-face interventions and will offer a novel approach for promoting a healthy lifestyle among preschoolers. If this intervention is found to be efficacious, the prevalence of unhealthy lifestyles among preschoolers may be alleviated at a low cost, which not only has a positive influence on the health of individuals and the well-being of the family but also reduces the financial pressure on society to treat diseases caused by poor lifestyle habits. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06025019; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06025019. DERR1-10.2196/58344.

A Sociopragmatic Analysis of Death Utterances in Jordanian Bedouin Society

This paper examines the sociopragmatic functions of death formulas used by Bedouins in eastern Jordan. It emphasizes discourse strategies Bedouins use, such as euphemisms and politeness, to refer to the deceased or to announce someone's death. The researchers collected 32 authentic expressions commonly used in death discourse. They examined and categorized them in light of the following sociopragmatic theories: politeness theory, Grice's maxims of conversation, and Austin's theory of speech acts. Seven strategies for using euphemisms in Bedouins' speech were elicited and analyzed in sections. The analysis reveals that death formulas serve contextual functions, such as maintaining social rapport, expressing condolences, and highlighting the predestination of death and life by God. This study adds to our understanding of Bedouin language and cultural practices in eastern Jordan, and it has practical implications for cross-cultural communication. Individuals can enhance mutual understanding and constructive connections with Bedouin communities in Jordan and worldwide by recognizing and respecting these cultural customs.

Being Alone or Together: How Frontline Anthropomorphized Robots Affect Solo (vs. Joint) Service Consumption

Solo consumption has become an emerging trend in recent years. However, the service experiences of solo customers with the growing adoption of frontline humanlike robots remain unclear, particularly in direct comparison with joint customers. Building on the literature of anthropomorphism and information processing theory, this study examines whether and how frontline anthropomorphized robots (FAR) might improve the service experiences of solo customers relative to their joint counterparts. Data from four studies, including field and online experiments, reveal that solo customers are more likely than joint customers to perceive FAR as offering rapport but also as being eerie, leading to different service evaluations (both attitudinal and behavioral outcomes). Nevertheless, as parallel mechanisms, these levels of social rapport and eeriness are contingent on features of the FAR, the service delivery process, and customers’ consumption goals. The rapport (eeriness) mechanism is strengthened (weakened) when the robot is of in-group favoritism, the service process deprives customers of control, and customers have a hedonic consumption goal. With the boom in adopting frontline humanlike robots in hospitality services, this study offers managerially relevant implications for serving solo customers as an emerging segment along with the traditional segment of joint customers.

MAKSIM KESANTUNAN DALAM KOMUNIKASI FATIS JAWA VIRTUAL: SEBUAH PENDEKATAN SIBERPRAGMATIK

Virtual communication gains popularity along with the rapid development of information technology. In a cultural context, cultural norms are employed in virtual communication. The lack of physical contact in virtual communication makes netizens utilize particular features in digital platforms to replace physical contact in performing politeness. This study explores the strategies of Javanese netizens to perform Javanese politeness maxims in virtual phatic communication. The data were taken from five WhatsApp Groups (WAG) of Javanese aged between 20s to 40s. 142 conversation texts containing phatic talks in WAG were collected by observation method. The conversational texts and virtual icons were transcribed for contextual analysis. The result shows that Javanese netizens utilized the maxims of Kurmat (Respect), Tepa Selira (Tolerance), Andhap Asor (Humility), and Empan Papan (Self-Awareness) as politeness strategies in virtual phatic communication. The tolerance maxim is the most frequently used to support each other. The maxim of humility is the least used. Javanese politeness maxims are camaraderie devices to establish social rapport in cyberpragmatics context. The employment of Javanese maxims is significant strategies to avoid conflict and the Face Threatening Act (FTA). Indeed, Javanese politeness maxims are essential in creating harmony in virtual communication.

Do Anthropomorphic Chatbots Increase Counseling Satisfaction and Reuse Intention? The Moderated Mediation of Social Rapport and Social Anxiety.

The growing demand for mental health services and artificial intelligence chatbots to replace human agents have led to increased attention to chatbot anthropomorphizing. This study explored the effect of anthropomorphism on counseling satisfaction and reuse intention for chatbot-led mental health counseling and the mediating role of social rapport in the relationship. This study also examined the interaction effect of anthropomorphism and social anxiety on counseling satisfaction and reuse intention. A total of 374 U.S. adults were recruited from an online crowdsourcing company to simulate user-chatbot interactions in the context of mental health counseling. Two chatbots either with a high anthropomorphic design (i.e., human face) or low anthropomorphic design (i.e., robot face) were developed through Dialogflow-a natural language processing engine-to examine the hypotheses. The results revealed that the high anthropomorphic design produced higher counseling satisfaction and reuse intention than the low anthropomorphic design, while this relationship is mediated by the perceived social rapport between chatbot counselors and users. The results further revealed a significant interaction effect of anthropomorphism and social anxiety on counseling satisfaction and reuse intention. The findings of this study are expected to (a) enhance the understanding of the effect of anthropomorphic chatbots on counseling satisfaction and reuse intention, (b) clarify moderating effects of social rapport and social anxiety, and (c) help mental health practitioners and chatbot designers by providing a psychological mechanism of how anthropomorphism functions in the context of human-chatbot interaction.

Javanese Maxims as Politeness Guidance in Social Media Phatic Communication: A Cyberpragmatics Perspective

Communication on social media raises at a significant rate during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Social media communication (SMC) in specific culture requires particular strategies related to cultural norms. Due to the limitation of cyber communication compares to direct communication, users of social media utilize available features in social media platforms to perform politeness. The strategies of Javanese netizens to perform Javanese politeness maxims in SMC are the main discussion in this study. The data were collected from five WhatsApp Groups (WAG) of Javanese adults of 20s-40s of age comprising 246 respondents. The conversation texts containing phatic talks in WAG were selected by observation method. Then, the conversational texts and communication icons were transcribed for contextual analysis. The result shows that the Javanese maxims of Kurmat (Respect), Tepa Selira (Tolerance), Andhap Asor (Humility), and Empan Papan (Self-Awareness) were utilized by Javanese netizens in performing politeness in virtual phatic communication. During the pandemic, tolerance maxim is the most frequently used to support each other. The maxim of humility is not obvious in virtual phatic communication. To this extent, Javanese politeness maxims are mitigating devices to establish social rapport in phatic communication. The Javanese ability in performing Javanese maxims as politeness devices is essential to avoid conflict and mitigate Face Threatening Act (FTA) since the Javanese community tends to create harmony in life known as Guyub Rukun.

COVID-19 시기에 5성급 호텔 레스토랑 직원의 비언어적 커뮤니케이션이 사회적 라포 및 관계지속의도에 미치는 영향 : 고객 공감의 조절효과

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of non-verbal communication of five star hotel restaurant employee perceived by customer on social rapport and relationship continuity intention during COVID-19. This study also investigates the moderating effect of customer empathy and mediating effect of social rapport. The final valid 312 samples among customers who have a experience of visiting five star hotel restaurant at least more than two times were put into the empirical analysis. We performed multiple & hierarchical regression analysis to investigate the research hypotheses and identify whether a mediating and moderating effect exists. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, we found that non-verbal communication had a significantly positive effect on social rapport and relationship continuity intention. It means that the higher customer’s perception of non-verbal communication, the higher social rapport and relationship continuity intention occurred Second, we turned out that moderating effect of customer empathy and mediating effect of social rapport were statistically significant. It implies that a significant difference in the effect of non-verbal communication on social rapport by customer empathy exists, and in the influential relationship between non-verbal communication and relationship continuity intention social rapport plays a mediating variable role. These results suggest that non-verbal communication is the key determinant of social rapport and relationship continuity intention. Hence, if five star hotel restaurant managers who want to raise relationship continuity intention via social rapport during COVID-19, they have to consider the non-verbal communication as a strategic tool.

Rosie the Riveter of the COVID time

Abstract Cyclic repetition can be observed in the use of figurative elements in the conceptualization of the coronavirus crisis, involving visual intertextuality or intervisuality. An example is provided by Rosie the Riveter, an iconic image from WW2, which has become extremely popular in recent times. The image in question has undergone a number of changes over time. Initially it was used as a personification thereby becoming a feminist symbol (essentially a stereotype). Then, it continued as a paragon. More recently it has acquired new meanings and functions by dispensing with almost all paragon and stereotype elements. These changes have been driven or supported by metonymies. Some of these metonymies have had an intrinsic or constitutive role, while other have had an extrinsic or recontextualizing role. The effects of the latter can be appreciated in the light of exemplification theory, which we take here to be a special form of discourse framing that heavily relies on metonymy. The metonymic figurativity analyzed in this article is not purely referential. There is added attitudinal value that primarily arises from establishing social rapport, creating empathy, and mobilizing citizens for action, while criticizing certain behaviors.

Human versus machine: investigating L2 learner output in face-to-face versus fully automated role-plays

To examine the utility of spoken dialog systems (SDSs) for learning and low-stakes assessment, we administered the same role-play task in two different modalities to a group of 47 tertiary-level learners of English. Each participant completed the task in an SDS setting with a fully automated agent and engaged in the same task with a human interlocutor in a face-to-face format. Additionally, we gauged students’ perceptions of the two delivery formats. Elicited oral performances were examined for linguistic complexity (syntactic complexity, lexical variety, fluency) and pragmatic functions (number and type of requests). Learner performance data across the two delivery modes were comparable although learners spoke slightly longer in the SDS task and used significantly more turns in the face-to-face setting—a finding that may be due to participants deploying more social rapport building moves, clarification requests, and backchanneling. The attitudinal data indicate that, while many learners liked both delivery formats, there was a slight preference for the face-to-face format, mainly due to the presence of body language. Overall, results show that fully automated SDS tasks may constitute a feasible alternative to face-to-face role-plays. Nevertheless, when possible, learners should be given a choice in task format for both learning and assessment.

Detecting Lies is a Child (Robot)’s Play: Gaze-Based Lie Detection in HRI

Robots destined to tasks like teaching or caregiving have to build a long-lasting social rapport with their human partners. This requires, from the robot side, to be capable of assessing whether the partner is trustworthy. To this aim a robot should be able to assess whether someone is lying or not, while preserving the pleasantness of the social interaction. We present an approach to promptly detect lies based on the pupil dilation, as intrinsic marker of the lie-associated cognitive load that can be applied in an ecological human–robot interaction, autonomously led by a robot. We demonstrated the validity of the approach with an experiment, in which the iCub humanoid robot engages the human partner by playing the role of a magician in a card game and detects in real-time the partner deceptive behavior. On top of that, we show how the robot can leverage on the gained knowledge about the deceptive behavior of each human partner, to better detect subsequent lies of that individual. Also, we explore whether machine learning models could improve lie detection performances for both known individuals (within-participants) over multiple interaction with the same partner, and with novel partners (between-participant). The proposed setup, interaction and models enable iCub to understand when its partners are lying, which is a fundamental skill for evaluating their trustworthiness and hence improving social human–robot interaction.

Intrusive Busybody or Benevolent Buddy: Phatic Communication among Javanese Women

Phatic communication is a discourse mechanism used primarily to establish and maintain social bonds. It operates differently across societies as well as genders within the same society. Thus, failure to understand such differences might result in misunderstanding and communication breakdowns. This paper discusses the phatic communication of the Javanese, the largest ethnic group in Indonesia. We focus primarily on the Javanese women who represent the majority of the Javanese population. Understanding the unique characteristics of their phatic communication would certainly play an important role in the cross-cultural network. The sociopragmatic approach is used for the analytical procedure to scrutinize the characteristics of Javanese women's phatic communication and the data are collected by taking field notes, conducting in-depth interviews, and distributing Discourse Completion Tasks (DCT) questionnaire. The findings show that Javanese women use phatic communication for initiating a conversation, intensifying camaraderie, pleasing others, expressing happiness, and consoling others. The main function is to sustain social rapport. Some phatic talk topics that may be regarded in certain cultures as intrusive and humiliating, such as those which concern one’s private life, are not considered so among Javanese women. To Javanese women, phatic communication is crucial in maintaining and promoting solidarity. Understanding phatic communication among Javanese women would contribute to successful cross-cultural communication in building social networks and business affairs, definitely.

What's All the Chatter? A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Emergency Physicians' Tweets.

IntroductionTwitter is growing in popularity and influence among emergency physicians (EP), with over 2200 self-identified EP users. As Twitter’s popularity has increased among EPs so too has its influence. While there has been debate about the value of Twitter as an effective educational delivery tool, little attention has been paid to the nature of the conversation occurring on Twitter. We aim to describe how influential EPs use Twitter by characterizing the language, purpose, frequencies, content, and degree of engagement of their tweets.MethodsWe performed a mixed-methods analysis following a combined content analysis approach. We conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses of a sample of tweets from the 61 most influential EPs on Twitter. We present descriptive tweet characteristics and noteworthy themes.ResultsWe analyzed 1375 unique tweets from 57 unique users, representing 93% of the influential Twitter EPs. A majority of tweets (1104/1375, 80%) elicited some response in the form of retweets, likes, or replies, demonstrating community engagement. The qualitative analysis identified 15 distinct categories of tweets.ConclusionInfluential EPs on Twitter were engaged in largely medical conversations in which most messages generated some form of interaction. They shared resources and opinions while also building social rapport in a community of practice. This data can help EPs make informed decisions about social media engagement.

A Critical Study of Arab Males and Females Interactional Styles in Formal Face- to- Face Conversations When Using English as a Second Language

It is obvious that the differences between Arab males and females interactional styles in formal face-to-face conversations when using English as a second language is interesting and uneasy task at the same time. In the light of the current research paper findings, the linguistic styles of males and females are quite different in regard with the conversation function itself, feedback of the conversation, the dominant gender in the whole conversation, some phonological variations and so on. Females prefer avoiding direct disagreement and maintaining the social rapport with other opposite gender. Females also depend on more easy ways or strategies to get the other speakers engaged in the dialogue as possible. Males, regardless of their status and educational level, seem less professional speakers and less cooperative than females seem. The process of communication among males and females; particularly, in the Arab word is complex since it is ruled by social and religious norms. But this process doesn't indicate that understanding their interactional styles in formal face-to-face conversations in a second language is not possible despite the small number of research papers conducted in such a field. However, subcultures play a basic role in distinguishing between males and females in conversation; meaning that if one gender comprehends other's subcultures, he or she will definitely be able to communicate in a much better way. The current research paper interestingly indicates that males are less fusty than females in dialogues as the last ones actually employ more strategies of politeness than males do. The researcher applied a descriptive method which is considered the most appropriate way for this current research paper; it is the method that describes the phenomena or the real situation as it is available in reality. However, more research papers are preferred to be conducted to highlight the differences between Arab males and females' interactional styles in; specially, formal face-to-face conversations in regards with prosodic characteristics just like pitch and intonation since such types of papers are rare in the Arab world.

How mimicry influences the neural correlates of reward: An fMRI study

Mimicry has been suggested to function as a “social glue”, a key mechanism that helps to build social rapport. It leads to increased feeling of closeness toward the mimicker as well as greater liking, suggesting close bidirectional links with reward. In recent work using eye-gaze tracking, we have demonstrated that the reward value of being mimicked, measured using a preferential looking paradigm, is directly proportional to trait empathy (Neufeld and Chakrabarti, 2016). In the current manuscript, we investigated the reward value of the act of mimicking, using a simple task manipulation that involved allowing or inhibiting spontaneous facial mimicry in response to dynamic expressions of positive emotion. We found greater reward-related neural activity in response to the condition where mimicry was allowed compared to that where mimicry was inhibited. The magnitude of this link from mimicry to reward response was positively correlated to trait empathy.

Reduced reward-related neural response to mimicry in individuals with autism.

Mimicry is a facilitator of social bonds in humans, from infancy. This facilitation is made possible through changing the reward value of social stimuli; for example, we like and affiliate more with people who mimic us. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are marked by difficulties in forming social bonds. In this study, we investigate whether the reward‐related neural response to being mimicked is altered in individuals with ASD, using a simple conditioning paradigm. Multiple studies in humans and nonhuman primates have established a crucial role for the ventral striatal (VS) region in responding to rewards. In this study, adults with ASD and matched controls first underwent a conditioning task outside the scanner, where they were mimicked by one face and ‘anti‐mimicked’ by another. In the second part, participants passively viewed the conditioned faces in a 3T MRI scanner using a multi‐echo sequence. The differential neural response towards mimicking vs. anti‐mimicking faces in the VS was tested for group differences as well as an association with self‐reported autistic traits. Multiple regression analysis revealed lower left VS response to mimicry (mimicking > anti‐mimicking faces) in the ASD group compared to controls. The VS response to mimicry was negatively correlated with autistic traits across the whole sample. Our results suggest that for individuals with ASD and high autistic traits, being mimicked is associated with lower reward‐related neural response. This result points to a potential mechanism underlying the difficulties reported by many of individuals with ASD in building social rapport.

Spatial-Proximity Optimization for Rapid Task Group Deployment

Spatial proximity is one of the most important factors for the quick deployment of the task groups in various time-sensitive missions. This article proposes a new spatial query, Spatio-Social Team Query (SSTQ) , that forms a strong task group by considering (1) the group’s spatial distance (i.e., transportation time), (2) skills of the candidate group members, and (3) social rapport among the candidates. Efficient processing of SSTQ is very challenging, because the aforementioned spatial, skill, and social factors need to be carefully examined. In this article, therefore, we first formulate two subproblems of SSTQ, namely Hop-Constrained Team Problem (HCTP) and Connection-Oriented Team Query (COTQ) . HCTP is a decision problem that considers only social and skill dimensions. We prove that HCTP is NP-Complete. Moreover, based on the hardness of HCTP, we prove that SSTQ is NP-Hard and inapproximable within any factor . On the other hand, COTQ is a special case of SSTQ that relaxes the social constraint. We prove that COTQ is NP-Hard and propose an approximation algorithm for COTQ, namely COTprox . Furthermore, based on the observations on COTprox, we devise an approximation algorithm, SSTprox , with a guaranteed error bound for SSTQ. Finally, to efficiently obtain the optimal solution to SSTQ for small instances, we design two efficient algorithms, SpatialFirst and SkillFirst , with different scenarios in mind. These two algorithms incorporate various effective ordering and pruning techniques to reduce the search space for answering SSTQ. Experimental results on real datasets indicate that the proposed algorithms can efficiently answer SSTQ under various parameter settings.

The influence of regional deprivation index on personal happiness using multilevel analysis.

OBJECTIVES:The objective of the present study was to identify the factors that influence the happiness index of community residents, by considering personal and regional aspects, and to use as evidence of efforts for improvement of the happiness index.METHODS:The study was conducted based on information from 16,270 participants who met the data requirement among those who participated in the 2011 South Gyeongsang Community Health Survey. Of the factors that can influence the happiness index, socioeconomic characteristics, health behavior, morbidity, and healthcare use, social contact, and participation in social activities were classified as personal factors; for regional factors, data from the 2010 census were used to extrapolate the regional deprivation indices at the submunicipal-level (eup, myeon, and dong) in South Gyeongsang Province. The happiness index for each characteristic was compared to that for others via t-test and ANOVA, and multilevel analysis was performed, using four models: a basic model for identification of only random effects, model 1 for identification of personal factors, model 2 for identification of regional factors, and model 3 for simultaneous consideration of both personal and regional factors.RESULTS:The mean happiness index was 63.2 points (64.6 points in males and 62.0 points in females), while the mean deprivation index was -1.58 points. In the multilevel analysis, the regional-level variance ratio of the basic model was 10.8%, confirming interregional differences. At the personal level, higher happiness indices were seen in groups consisting of males with high educational level, high income, high degree of physical activity, sufficient sleep, active social contact, and participation in social activities; whereas lower happiness indices were seen in people who frequently skipped breakfast, had unmet healthcare needs, and had accompanying diseases, as well as those with higher deprivation index.CONCLUSIONS:The study confirmed that the happiness index of community residents was influenced by not only personal aspects but also various regional characteristics. To increase the happiness index, interests at both personal and regional levels, as well as community emphasis on creating social rapport and engaging in selective efforts, are needed in vulnerable regions with relatively high deprivation index.

Can Real-Time, Adaptive Human–Robot Motor Coordination Improve Humans’ Overall Perception of a Robot?

Previous research on social interaction among humans suggested that interpersonal motor coordination can help to establish social rapport. Our research addresses the question of whether, in a human–humanoid interaction experiment, the human’s overall perception of a robot can be improved by realizing motor coordination behavior that allows the robot to adapt in real-time to a person’s behavior. A synchrony detection method using information distance was adopted to realize the real-time human–robot motor coordination behavior, which guided the humanoid robot to coordinate its movements to a human by measuring the behavior synchrony between the robot and the human. The feedback of the participants indicated that most of the participants preferred to interact with the humanoid robot with the adaptive motor coordination capability. The results of this proof-of-concept study suggest that the motor coordination mechanism improved humans’ overall perception of the humanoid robot. Together with our previous findings, namely that humans actively coordinate their behaviors to a humanoid robot’s behaviors, this study further supports the hypothesis that bidirectional motor coordination could be a valid approach to facilitate adaptive human–humanoid interaction.

‘You look terrific!’ Social evaluation and relationships in online compliments

Despite its apparent simplicity, the speech act of complimenting has received a great deal of attention in the literature. However, studies have mostly focused on compliments’ realization in face-to-face conversational exchanges, while they have often been neglected in other channels such as online communication. This article is intended to redress the balance in support of online exchanges. More specifically, we aim to investigate how users of online social networks like Facebook use compliments to evaluate others and strengthen social rapport in English and Spanish. In order to do so, we gathered two balanced corpora in both languages (50 examples in each language). The samples were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed using a systemic functional framework. The analysis reveals that compliments constitute a system of choices where several available options help Facebook users to encode their evaluation of the other from various perspectives (e.g. as an emotion, as an unquestionable truth, etc.). Furthermore, results also show that despite superficial similarities, compliments in both languages follow remarkably different frequencies of use which reflect deep cultural differences.