Body Language Without a Body

Abstract

Humans are wired for face-to-face interaction because this was the only possible and available se ing during the long evolutionary process that has led to Homo Sapiens. At the moment an increasingly signi cant fraction of our interactions take place in technology mediated se ings, it is important to investigate how such a wiring -mainly corresponding to neural processes -reacts and adapts to them. is talk focuses in particular on how nonverbal communication -one of the main channels through which people convey socially and psychologically relevant information -plays a role in se ings where natural nonverbal cues (facial expressions, vocalizations, gestures, etc.) are no longer available. Such an issue is important not only from a technological point of view (it can help to design interaction and communication technologies that be er address human needs), but also from a societal one (it can help to understand major phenomena such as cyberbullyism and virality).