This study analyzes the influence of avatars on social presence, interpersonal trust, perceived communication quality, nonverbal behavior, and visual attention in Net-based collaborations using a comparative approach. A real-time communication window including a special avatar interface was integrated into a shared collaborative workspace. Communication modes under investigation were text chat, audio, audio-video, and avatar. Significant differences were found between text chat and all other communication modalities in perceived intimateness, co-presence, and emotionally-based trust. Microanalyses of nonverbal activity and visual attention point to similarities between video and avatar modes, both showing higher levels of exposure to the virtual other and visual attention, in particular in the initial phase of interaction as compared to text and audio.Technologies for computer-mediated communication (CMC) and collaboration are advancing rapidly. Shared workspaces and collaborative virtual environments allow for real-time information interchange and the synchronization of distributed working efforts over large distances. However, real-time access to information is only one determinant of efficient Net-based collaboration. Even more relevant in individual, societal, and economical respects could be the possibility to substitute face-to-face (FtF) meetings, which despite high costs are still the preferred interactional setting (Walther & Parks, 2002) when it comes to more complex communication tasks involving socioemotional aspects. Gates (1999) formulates the vision of global collaboration as follows.What do people do at work? They go to meetings. How do we deal with meetings? What is it about sitting face to face that we need to capture? We need software that makes it possible to hold a meeting with distributed

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It was analyzed whether an embodied conversational agent (ECA) has specific advantages when employed with privacy invading technologies such as a biometric security system. The study compares the effects of an ECA interface with the effects of conventional text-based and voice-based interfaces on user acceptance and usability. An additional variable was whether the biometric system falsely rejected the user twice or whether it directly accepted him/her. Results of the 2 × 3 between-subjects design indicated that, although overall the text interface is rated most positive, voice and ECA yield distinct social effects: They have more advantageous consequences when problems arise – i.e., when the user is rejected repeatedly. The implications for social psychology in terms of applicability of new research methods as well as insights concerning fundamental research are discussed.

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Common sense holds that exposure to media content can be associated with different levels of excitement and arousal (→ Exposure to Communication Content). The specific case of a thrilling movie well describes the type of stimuli that come to our mind when using the terms arousal and excitation in everyday language. From a psychological point of view, arousal is conceptualized in more general terms, as a state of alertness and physical excitation elicited by external or internal stimuli, which challenge an adaptive response of the organism. The modern world is complex and rich in stimuli. It is in many respects different from the environment of our early ancestors, which required the organism to be physically prepared for immediate action, e.g., when possible threats entered the field of perception.