Humans are highly social creatures. Evidence from the dot perspective task suggests that humans automatically track the perspective of other individuals – a disposition that, if true, may help to facilitate social interaction. However, variants of the original dot perspective task suggest the alternative interpretation that the effect in the task is not due to perspective taking. Here, we prese...

Social psychological research demonstrates that the same behavior might lead to different evaluations depending on whether it is shown by a man or a woman. With a view to design decisions with regard to virtual humans it is relevant to test whether this pattern also applies to gendered virtual humans. In a 2x2 between subjects experiment we manipulated the Rapport Agent’s gaze behavior and its ...

Humans are deeply social animals. Our beliefs, desires, and behaviors are affected by social preferences, our relationships, and the social contexts in which we live and make decisions. We are “group-minded individuals” who see the world from a social as well as an individual perspective; we understand what is in the minds of others and often act as if our brains are networked with the brains o...

Humans draw on their stereotypic beliefs to make assumptions about others. Even though prior research has shown that individuals respond socially to media, there is little evidence with regards to learners stereotyping and categorizing pedagogical agents. This study investigated whether learners stereotype a pedagogical agent as being knowledgeable or not knowledgeable and how this acuity influ...

Humans often alter their behavior depending on the opponent’s group membership, with positive (e.g., support of same-group members) or negative (e.g., stereotyping, oppression, genocide) consequences. An influential model developed by Hammond and Axelrod highlighted the emergence of macro-level “ethnocentric cooperation” from the aggregation of micro-level interactions based on arbitrary tags s...