Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Recent studies demonstrate that people show social reactions when interacting with virtual agents. Human users e.g. behave in a socially desirable way, show increased cooperation or apply human-like communication. Most research, however, focused on behavior that might have been produced consciously, e.g. due to demand characteristics of the situation. In order to affirm whether also truly mindless reactions occur (as Nass and Moon, 2000, posit in their ethopoeia approach) we conducted a study on mimicry behavior. Within the experiment we analyzed whether humans reciprocate an agent´s smile. In a between subjects design, 104 participants conducted an eight-minute small talk conversation with an agent that either did not smile, engaged in casual smiles or displayed frequent smiles. Results show that although smiling did not have a distinct impact on the evaluation of the agent, the human interaction partners themselves smiled more frequently when the agent was smiling.

Publication Type: Individual Poster
Abstract: Infants’ Endogenous Smiles, Social Smiles and Open-mouth Smiles in the First Year

S.-T. Tina Huang, Hui-Fang Chen, Yi-Shi Haiso, and Min-Chi Tsai

Department of Psychology and Center for Research in Cognitive Science
National Chung-Cheng University, 62102 Chiayi, Taiwan

Background and aims. Smiles are important in supporting an infant’s social and emotional interactions especially in the early months after birth. Evidence has suggested that the frequency and distribution of various types of smile change over time. For example, a newborn’s endogenous smile may disappear toward the end of the second month, and replaced by social smiles emerging in the third month. Social smiles are considered the first kind of smile infants used to promote social interactions, especially with their caregivers. The present study investigated three kinds of smile infants exhibited in their dyadic interactions with mothers.
Method. Twenty-one infants were recruited from the suburban areas of Chiayi county in Taiwan. Repeated home visits were conducted to observe and record patterns of endogenous smiles, simple social smiles, and two types of open-mouth smiles, as well as interactions between the infant and his or her mother, both with and without toys in separate phases, up to the first 15 months after birth. The first home visit was conducted when the infant participants were about 6-week old. Each baby was then re-visited every two weeks up to 15 months of age. Data from three consecutive months were aggregated into five three-month periods for each infant.
Key Results. Results revealed that endogenous smiles decreased substantially during the early infancy to the point where they vanished almost completely after six months of age. Beginning at the fourth month, social smiles occurred more frequently in the face-to-face interaction phases than in the toy-play phases. Furthermore, more social smiles were exhibited in the second half of the first year than after one year of age (7-9 m: M = 17.53, 10-12 m: M = 15.20; and 13-15 m: M = 6.30, respectively). Finally, open-month smiles increased dramatically during the period of six to nine months and were higher in the toy-play phases than in the face-to-face interaction phases.
Conclusions. The pattern of changes in the frequency of endogenous smiles, social smiles, and open-mouth smiles suggests that young infants develop sophisticated emotional expressions during the first year of life. Our findings also reveal a curvilinear relationship between the development of social smiles and the age at which changes in those smiles would most likely take place. Furthermore we observed a dramatic increase of open-mouth smiles in the toy-play phase during the later part of the first year. The functions of the simple social smile and open-month smiles were discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: It has been noted that recent technological advances in massively multi-player online game (MMOG) communication – for example, voice-over IP (VOIP) – can enrich the mediated social experience offered, leading to increased communication and higher perceived levels of community (Williams et al., 2007). As the graphical capabilities of these social virtual worlds increase, nonverbal face-to-face communication between avatars may be the next step. To examine the extent to which avatar facial cues may be used as an effective communication channel within virtual environments, we obtained actual in-game facial expressions across a variety of avatar types, testing whether certain variables of avatar appearance (degree of human-likeness and stereotypical avatar disposition) affect the strength of expression recognition as measured by facial mimicry. This study employs a 2 (Human Likeness) x 2 (Stereotyped Disposition) x 2 (Valence) x 3 (Repetition) mixed design and operationalizes facial mimicry through EMG change scores.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Emoticons are utilized to communicate facial expressions or body gestures when expressing opinions/attitudes or moods/emotions online. Although there is a growing use of emoticons, very little research has been conducted on emoticons’ effects on relational outcomes in CMC. This study examines the effects of “smiley emoticons” on various relational outcomes, including, liking, metaperceived liking, immediacy/affection, similarity/depth, and uncertainty reduction. This study also tests the effects of emotions on the perceived credibility of the sender and the message. The results indicate that, in many cases, emoticons have a significant effect on developing favorable relational outcomes. It also examines the impact of emoticons on two different types of settings (task-oriented vs. socio-emotional contexts) to see whether there is an interaction effect. Specific results can be found in the discussion.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Though many have studied marketing to children, far fewer have considered marketing through children. This study examines how print ads sell designer children's clothing to their target: affluent mothers. Drawing on the work of Goffman (1959) and Meyrowitz (1986), I observe that the young models in these ads address the camera without a smile and argue that such interpersonal fronts of domination presents a paraproxemic challenge to the viewer. Moreover, these ads adultify the children by referencing similar images of adult haute couture models. I conclude that in the context of high fashion, sexuality is not so much exposed as it is expressed.