Psychoworld.sk – human psychology news

Psychologists and salesmen call it the “chameleon effect”: People are perceived as more honest and likeable if they subtly mimic the body language of the person they’re speaking with.

Now scientists have demonstrated that computers can exploit the same phenomenon, but with greater success and on a larger scale. Researchers at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab performed an experiment with extremely interesting findings.

The results (.pdf), to be published in the August issue of the journal Psychological Science, were dramatic: Only eight of the subjects detected the mimicry (one of them falsely). The remaining students liked the mimicking agent more than the recorded agent, rating the former more friendly, interesting, honest and persuasive.

In all, the mimicry accounted for 20 percent of all the variance in the subjects’ perception of the agent and its Ashcroftian message. “This is the biggest effect that we’ve found,” says Stanford communications assistant professor Jeremy Bailenson, head of the lab. “It’s not fragile, it doesn’t depend on gender. Across the board, everyone found the mimicker more persuasive.”

Have a look at another experiment, which Mr. Bailenson calls scary. But he says his lab isn’t about using computers to dominate the human will.