Unacquainted Pairs Research Articles

Synchrony During Online Encounters Affects Social Affiliation and Theory of Mind but Not Empathy.

Moving together in time affects human social affiliation and cognition. However, it is unclear whether these effects hold for on-line video meetings and whether they extend to empathy (understanding or sharing others' emotions) and theory of mind (ToM; attribution of mental states to others). 126 young adult participants met through online video in unacquainted pairs. Participants either performed 3 min of synchronous arm movements paced by sounds (n = 40), asynchronous movements (n = 46) or a small talk condition (n = 40). In a subsequent empathy task, participants engaged in a conversation. A video recording of this conversation was played back, and each participant rated, at predetermined time points, how they felt and how they thought their partner felt. From this we calculated empathic accuracy (accuracy of the estimation of the other's emotions) and emotional congruence (emotion sharing). ToM was measured by showing videos of geometrical shapes interacting and asking the participants to describe what happened, measuring the amount of intentionality. We found that participants in the synchrony condition rated feeling greater closeness and similarity to their partners relative to the asynchronous condition. Further, participants in the synchrony group tended to ascribe more intentionality to the abstract shapes than participants in asynchrony condition, suggesting greater ToM. Synchrony and asynchrony groups did not reliably differ in empathic accuracy nor emotional congruence. These results suggest that moving in synchrony has effects on social affiliation measures even in online encounters. These effects extend to ToM tendencies but not empathic accuracy or emotion sharing. These results highlight the potential of synchronous movement in online encounters to affect a subset of social cognition and affiliation measures.

Presence and Communication in Hybrid Virtual and Augmented Reality Environments

Abstract The use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in connected environments is rarely explored but may become a necessary channel of communication in the future. Such environments would allow multiple users to interact, engage, and share multidimensional data across devices and between the spectrum of realities. However, communication between the two realities within a hybrid environment is barely understood. We carried out an experiment with 52 participants in 26 pairs, within two environments of 3D cultural artifacts: (1) a Hybrid VR and AR environment (HVAR) and (2) a Shared VR environment (SVR). We explored the differences in perceived spatial presence, copresence, and social presence between the environments and between users. We demonstrated that greater presence is perceived in SVR when compared with HVAR, and greater spatial presence is perceived for VR users. Social presence is perceived greater for AR users, possibly because they have line of sight of their partners within HVAR. We found positive correlations between shared activity time and perceived social presence. While acquainted pairs reported significantly greater presence than unacquainted pairs in SVR, there were no significant differences in perceived presence between them in HVAR.

Remembering with a friend or a stranger: comparing acquainted and unacquainted pairs in collaborative eyewitness interviews

ABSTRACTPrevious findings show that collaborative interviews with pairs of eyewitnesses can result in more accurate testimony than individual interviews, and that partners remember more together if they acknowledge, repeat, rephrase and elaborate upon each other's contributions. In the present study, we investigated whether these findings differ for pairs of acquainted and unacquainted partners, respectively. Participants viewed a violent movie in the cinema and took part in three eyewitness interviews approximately five days later. The first and the last interview were always individual. The second interview was individual in the nominal condition (N = 22 pairs), collaborative with a known partner in the acquainted condition (N = 21 pairs), and collaborative with a stranger in the unacquainted condition (N = 20 pairs). We replicated benefits of collaborative eyewitness interviews, in terms of error pruning as well as delayed cross-cuing. However, we found no significant differences between acquainted and unacquainted pairs, neither in recall performance nor in retrieval strategies during the collaborative interview. Regardless of acquaintance, pairs who elaborated upon each other's contributions during the collaborative interview, remembered more together. The findings are evaluated within the theoretical framework of transactive memory. Practical implications for investigative interviewers are discussed.

Is sharing specific autobiographical memories a distinct form of self-disclosure?

Theories of autobiographical memory posit a social function, meaning that recollecting and sharing memories of specific discrete events creates and maintains relationship intimacy. Eight studies with 1,271 participants tested whether sharing specific autobiographical memories in conversations increases feelings of closeness among conversation partners, relative to sharing other self-related information. The first 2 studies revealed that conversations in which specific autobiographical memories were shared were also accompanied by feelings of closeness among conversation partners. The next 5 studies experimentally introduced specific autobiographical memories versus general information about the self into conversations between mostly unacquainted pairs of participants. Discussing specific autobiographical memories led to greater closeness among conversation partners than discussing nonself-related topics, but no greater closeness than discussing other, more general self-related information. In the final study unacquainted pairs in whom feelings of closeness had been experimentally induced through shared humor were more likely to discuss specific autobiographical memories than unacquainted control participant pairs. We conclude that sharing specific autobiographical memories may express more than create relationship closeness, and discuss how relationship closeness may afford sharing of specific autobiographical memories by providing common ground, a social display, or a safety signal.

Building relationships in initial interactions: Investigating the tie between similarity and nonverbal congruency

This study tested a correspondence model hypothesizing that clusters of nonverbal behaviors scaled for their degree of congruency are likely to correlate with measures of actual and assumed personality similarity. Ratings of previously unacquainted pairs (N = 66) showed that both actual and perceived personality similarity were generally associated with nonverbal cues rated as congruent. During certain interaction periods, actual warmth and humility similarity correlated positively with congruence of body cues; actual warmth similarity also related positively to congruent vocal cues, but actual creativity similarity correlated negatively with facial congruence. Vocal congruence correlated positively with perceptions of similarity in warmth, and congruent face and language cues were positively associated with judgments of humility similarity. Importantly, only congruent vocal cues were associated as expected with both actual and perceived similarity, and this link only occurred for similarity in warmth.

Objective Versus Perceived Vocal Interruptions in the Dialogues of Unacquainted Pairs, Friends, and Couples

Two studies are presented that examined whether men interrupt differently than women and whether they are perceived to interrupt differently. First, 84 individuals participated in 25-minute conversations that were automatically summarized as a set of vocal interruptive behaviors. Statistical analyses indicated no sex differences. The second study had 80 judges rate five of the videotapes from the first study (selected on the basis of highly similar objective interruptions) in terms of the how interruptive the judges viewed the conversationalists to be. Women were perceived to interrupt significantly more then men. Tb help understand the discrepant findings, a subset of the original tapes was recoded using a subjective procedure. Findings replicated those yielded by the objective coding method. This set of findings suggests that differences in the interruptive behavior of men and women may be more perceived than actual.

Resolution of agonistic conflicts in dyads of acquainted green swordtails ( Xiphophorus helleri): a game with perfect information

Conflict resolution of acquainted opponents was compared to that of unacquainted ones in Xiphophorus helleri males. Under the Familiar condition, the 2 males which met had settled contest against each other in a previously staged encounter in another aquarium. Thus one opponent was previously the dominant pair member, the other its subordinate. Under the Unfamiliar condition, 2 males met which were not acquainted with each other but had independently undergone previous experience of victory or defeat. We tested the hypothesis that familiar pairs would conform to some behavioural predictions of an asymmetrical game with perfect information. As for unfamiliar pairs, being imperfectly informed of asymmetries at contest onset, they would have to acquire information on these during the course of interaction ( asymmetrical game with assessment) or alternatively would have to persist for a certain time or cost ( war of attrition). All expectations derived from an asymmetrical game with perfect information applied to familiar pairs but not to unfamiliar ones. In familiar pairs, all previous roles were reinstated without any escalation. Though previous winners predominantly defeated previous losers under both conditions of cognizance, this difference was more extreme in familiar dyads than in unfamiliar ones. This suggests that the respective roles were less clearly identified in the latter. The costs of conflicts, both in terms of aggressive behaviours used and in time, were also higher in unfamiliar pairs than in familiar ones. Unacquainted individuals required a longer period to assess each other. In addition, they had to rely on more pugnacious behaviour to settle disputes in comparison to acquainted pairs. As expected also, familiar pairs being already cognizant of initial respective roles were more characterized in terms of the behavioural patterns typical of each of these roles. Differences between ultimate winners and losers were clearer in acquainted pairs and appeared earlier during conflict. It was also possible earlier during contest to discriminate and predict ultimate winners from losers of acquainted pairs using behavioural interactions. In unacquainted pairs, ultimate winners could be forecasted using multivariate discriminant analyses, mainly by their offering resistance to future losers. A `war of attrition' did not fit to unacquainted pairs.

Sexist Discrimination as Distancing Behavior: I. A Laboratory Demonstration

Attitudes toward and beliefs about women have been studied but investigations of behavior directed toward women in simple interpersonal situations have been relatively infrequent, in this study, ten previously unacquainted pairs of men, ten pairs of women, and twenty mixed-gender pairs were observed during a 10-minute task in which each pair constructed a domino structure for a contest. Under these laboratory conditions in which sexual arousal and nurturance cues were minimal it was predicted that men would behave differently toward women partners than toward men partners by manifesting avoidance or distancing behavior more frequently, but that women's responses to other—gender and same—gender partners would not be reliably different. Dependent measures were obtained by self—report and by ratings of observers who watched the dyadic interaction behind a one-way vision screen. As predicted, women in mixed-gender pairs did not differ significantly from those in same-gender pairs on any measure, but men were found to distance themselves from a woman partner (as compared to a man) by turning their faces or bodies away and making negative comments, by not following advice, and by placing dominoes closer to themselves.

Agency, communion, and gender as predictors of communication style and being liked in adult male-female dyads

Agency, communion, and gender were compared as predictors of communication style in the conversations of 76 unacquainted pairs of male-female college students. Each dyad was given a popular issue to discuss for 5 min. Agency and communion were measured using Spence and Helmreich's (Masculinity and Femininity: Their Psychological Dimensions, Correlates, and Antecedents, Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1978) Personal Attributes Questionnaire. Self-perceived agency was significantly associated with verbal assertiveness: High-agency persons used fewer indirect statements and fewer passive self-references than low-agency persons. Nonsignificant trends indicated that self-perceived communication tended to be associated with interpersonal involvement: High-communion persons used fewer impersonal references and were liked more than low-communion persons.

Social Behavior at Thirty-Three Months in Same-Sex and Mixed-Sex Dyads

JACKLIN, CAROL NAGY, and MACCOBY, ELEANOR E. Social Behavior at Thirty-three Months in Same-Sex and Mixed-Sex Dyads. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 557-569. Previously unacquainted pairs of 33-month-old children were brought together in same-sex or mixed-sex pairs in a laboratory playroom, and the amount and kind of social behavior directed by each child toward the playmate was recorded. Children directed more social behavior-both positive and negative-to same-sex playmates than to opposite-sex ones. Girls paired with boys were more likely to stand passively watching their partners, or to withdraw toward their mothers, than boys in any pairing or girls playing with girls. Sequential analysis disclosed that boys were unlikely to respond to the vocal prohibitions of girls, while partners did respond to such prohibitions in other pairings. Statistical issues in measuring dyadic interaction are discussed, as are the implications of the findings for children's self-segregation by sex in play groups.