Visual familiarity as a factor of social presence represented via non-verbal communication in audio-mediated channel

Abstract

Presence, as a perceptual illusion of non-mediation, is a phenomenon that is often vaguely conceptualized, measured via self-report and stimulated via technological factors. This study offers a more certain conceptual framework, behavioral measure, and a contextual factor that highlights the psychological nature of this psychological state. Specifically, a Zoom-based field experiment was conducted to test whether being visually familiarized with a person before describing spatial information (images of an old dress and maze) to another person would increase a sense of social presence, and therefore a higher rate of gestures used to describe images even though they won’t be seen by the other person. As results showed, being familiarized was enough to reduce uncertainty over the other person to feel social presence and gesture at a higher rate as if the communication was face-to-face.