During the COVID-19 pandemic, many courtrooms implemented physical distancing protocols, including face-mask requirements for testifying witnesses. These precautions prompted debate among academics and practitioners about whether face coverings might impair jurors’ ability to assess a witness’s credibility. To examine this question, we conducted two experimental studies using simulated video-recorded testimony. We hypothesized that face masks would reduce perceived credibility as measured by ratings of trustworthiness and overall witness credibility. Across both studies, our results provided no evidence that face masks diminished perceptions of credibility or trust. These results suggest that, in such settings, face mask use may not significantly interfere with jurors’ interpersonal assessments. We discuss implications for future courtroom procedures should witnesses be required to wear a medical mask, either for public or personal health reasons.

Making accurate, unbiased decisions is critical in high-stakes professions such as law enforcement, intelligence analysis, and medicine, since the decisions can have severe consequences. In this chapter, we discuss what makes persuasive games effective for training professionals to recognize their cognitive biases, improve their knowledge about decision-making biases, and learn ways of mitigating bias. We describe our experience designing three games for professional training in cognitive biases and deception detection. This chapter focuses on the combination of decisionmaking, education, and game theories that drives our design. This is then followed by a discussion of our experiments and measurements for testing the effectiveness of our designs.

The growth of machine learning and artificial intelligence has made it possible for automatic lie detection systems to emerge. These can be based on a variety of cues, such as facial features. However, there is a lack of knowledge about both the development and the accuracy of such systems. To address this lack, we conducted a review of studies that have investigated automatic lie detection systems by using facial features. Our analysis of twenty-eight eligible studies focused on four main categories: dataset features, facial features used, classifier features and publication features. Overall, the findings showed that automatic lie detection systems rely on diverse technologies, facial features, and measurements. They are mainly based on factual lies, regardless of the stakes involved. On average, these automatic systems were based on a dataset of 52 individuals and achieved an average accuracy ranging from 61.87% to 72.93% in distinguishing between truth-tellers and liars, depending on the types of classifiers used. However, although the leakage hypothesis was the most used explanatory framework, many studies did not provide sufficient theoretical justification for the choice of facial features and their measurements. Bridging the gap between psychology and the computational-engineering field should help to combine theoretical frameworks with technical advancements in this area.

Introduction: Wearable I robots such as exoskeletons combine the strength and precision of intelligent machines with the adaptability and creativity of human beings. Exoskeletons are unique in that humans interact with the technologies on both a physical and cognitive level, and as such, involve a complex, interdependent relationship between humans and robots. The aim of this paper was to explore the concepts of agency and adaptation as they relate to human-machine synchrony, as human users learned to operate a complex whole-body powered exoskeleton.Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with participants over multiple sessions in which they performed a range of basic functional tasks and simulated industrial tasks using a powered exoskeleton prototype, to understand their expectations of the human-technology partnership, any challenges that arose in their interaction with the device, and what strategies they used to resolve such challenges.Results: Analysis of the data revealed two overarching themes: 1) Participants faced physical, cognitive, and affective challenges to synchronizing with the exoskeleton; and 2) they engaged in sensemaking strategies such as drawing analogies with known prior experiences and anthropomorphized the exoskeleton as a partner entity in order to adapt and address challenges.Discussion: This research is an important first step to understanding how humans make sense of and adapt to a powerful and complex wearable robot with which they must synchronize in order to perform tasks. Implications for our understanding of human and machine agency as well as bidirectional coadaptation principles are discussed.

Introduction Forensic interviewing entails practitioners interviewing suspects to secure valid information and elicit confessions. Such interviews are often conducted in police stations but may also occur in field settings such as border crossings, security checkpoints, bus terminals, and sports venues. Because these real-world interviews often lack experimental control and ground truth, this investigation explored whether results of non-forensic interviews generalize to forensic ones. Methods Organizational espionage was simulated to determine (1) what verbal signals distinguish truth from deception, (2) whether deception in groups aligns with deception in dyads, and (3) whether non-forensic venues can be generalized to forensic ones. Engaging in a mock hiring deliberation, participants (4–5 strangers) reviewed and discussed resumes of potential candidates. Surreptitiously, two group members assigned the role of “organizational spies” attempted to persuade the group to hire an inferior candidate. Each group member presented notes from an interview of “their” candidate, followed by a discussion of all candidates. Spies were to use any means possible, including deception, to persuade others to select their candidate. A financial incentive was offered for having one’s candidate chosen. The interview reports and discussions were transcribed and analyzed with SPLICE, an automated text analysis program. Results Deceivers were perceived as less trustworthy than truth-tellers, especially when the naïve players won but overall, deceivers were difficult for non-spies to detect even though they were seen as less trustworthy than the naïve participants. Deceivers’ language was more complex and exhibited an “echoing” strategy of repeating others’ opinions. This collusion evolved naturally, without pre-planning. No other verbal differences were evident, which suggests that the difference between spies and non-spies was subtle and difficult for truth-tellers to spot. Discussion Whether deception can be successfully detected hinges on a variety of factors including the deceiver’s skill to disguise and the detector’s ability to sense and process information. Furthermore, the group dynamics and communication context subtly moderate how deception manifests and influence the accuracy of detecting ulterior motives. Our future investigations could encompass non-verbal communication channels and verbal patterns rooted in content, thereby providing a more comprehensive understanding of deception detection.

The recently-proposed strategic synchrony hypothesis holds that deceivers (more than truth-tellers) use nonverbal synchrony as a way to maintain their credibility and the smooth flow of interactions. However, important questions remain as to how an interaction partner's behavior and the topic of interaction qualify the strategic synchrony hypothesis. This study considered whether naïve participants (i.e., truth-tellers and deceivers) synchronize differently to high- and low-involvement partners (i.e., confederates) depending on whether the partners discuss climate change or tuition increases, two salient conversational topics for our participants. Deceivers who discussed climate change with a high-involvement partner were especially likely to subjectively perceive that both they themselves and their partner initiated synchrony during the discussion of climate change. However, objective automated analyses of bodily movement synchrony revealed a different set of findings: Dyads with a truth-teller demonstrated higher increases in synchrony than dyads with a deceiver when moving from a superficial discussion of what they liked about their university to a direct discussion of climate change. Results are discussed in terms of how they advance the strategic synchrony hypothesis.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of vocalic behavior in resolving high-conflict situations. A quantitative study was employed using 277 university students from California and Florida. We experimentally tested a vocal coding system using passive, aggressive, and assertive audio clips presented to research subjects, which included volume, pitch, rate, pausing, and vocal variety. Participants rated these audio clips based on vocal qualities, relational outcomes, appropriateness, and resolving conflict. Results revealed that the assertive vocal style was associated with higher ratings to resolve conflict and perceptions of verbal assertiveness and appropriateness than were passive or aggressive vocal styles. Implications and applications are discussed to stimulate future research among researchers and practitioners when addressing conflict situations. Public Significance Statement This study tested the effects of different vocal qualities on perceptions of conflict. The results found that the assertive vocal style (as opposed to aggressive or passive) was most conducive to resolving conflict and wanting to work with a partner in the future.

Warranting theory articulates the process by which individuals connect online information to an offline target, guiding impression formation. The presence of online information alone may not innately guide impression formation about a target. Rather, the connection of that claim to perceptions of a target's offline self should be driven by several antecedents. The reported experiment tested the antecedent factors of third-party claims with respect to perceptions and behavioral intentions toward a course instructor. Undergraduate students in the United States (N = 209) viewed a hypothetical professor-rating website reflecting a 2 (target reply: present or absent) x 2 (rater identifiability: identifiable or anonymous) x 2 (number of ratings: many or few) x 2 (average rating: present or absent) experimental design, and reported the characteristics they perceived the target professor to possess offline. Results of a structural equation model revealed only an individual's ability to reply to online information influenced judgments of warranting value; but the warranting value of the online information influenced subsequent impressions of the target's offline attributes.

A fundamental underpinning of all social relationships is trust. Trust can be established through implicit forms of communication called relational messages. A multidisciplinary, multi-university, cross-cultural investigation addressed how these message themes are expressed and whether they are moderated by culture and veracity. A multi-round decision-making game with 695 international participants assessed the nonverbal and verbal behaviors that express such meanings as affection, dominance, and composure, from which people ultimately determine who can be trusted and who not. Analysis of subjective judgments showed that trust was most predicted by dominance, then affection, and lastly, composure. Behaviorally, several nonverbal and verbal behaviors associated with these message themes were combined to predict trust. Results were similar across cultures but moderated by veracity. Methodologically, automated software extracted facial features, vocal features, and linguistic metrics associated with these message themes. A new attentional computer vision method retrospectively identified specific meaningful segments where relational messages were expressed. The new software tools and attentional model hold promise for identifying nuanced, implicit meanings that together predict trust and that can, in combination, serve as proxies for trust.

Trust between group members has many implications for how well a group performs. In this study, we predict perceived trustworthiness of group members when there are subversive group members. We collected multimodal verbal and nonverbal data from a group interaction experiment. During the interaction, we periodically surveyed the group members about their perceptions of trustworthiness of other group members. We used this data to model the relationship between observable behavior and perceptions of trustworthiness. We report the most predictive features and describe them in the context of existing literature on verbal and nonverbal correlates of trust. This research advances the study of behavioral measurement in groups and the role of behavior on perceived trustworthiness.

Intimidation is often defined, received, and perceived pejoratively. The current study sets out to find a “sweet spot” in situations where intimidation cannot be avoided and compliance is the goal, where one can maximize compliance but keep fear as low as possible. This experimental study predicted that by lessening mean-spirited speech, a moderate amount of intimidation, as opposed to greater or lesser degrees of it, would produce more compliance with a request, positive interpersonal attributions, and communicative accommodations. The results supported the idea of such a “sweet spot” and implications for authority figures are considered and discussed.

Exoskeletons are an emerging form of technology that combines the skills of both machines and humans to give wearers the ability to complete physically demanding tasks that would be too strenuous for most humans. Exoskeleton adoption has the potential to both enhance and disrupt many aspects of work, including power dynamics in the workplace and the human-machine interactions that take place. Dyadic Power Theory (DPT) is a useful theory for exploring the impacts of exoskeleton adoption. In this conceptual paper, we extend DPT to relationships between humans and machines in organizations, as well as human-human communication where use of an exoskeleton has resulted in shifts of power.

The “cognitive approach” to detecting deception assumes that deception is a cognitively taxing experience, so interpersonal questioning techniques that make the task even more cognitively difficult will make liars easier to detect. The present experiment asked participants to imagine they were involved in either a high-stakes or low-stakes deceptive theft scenario and compared these conditions to a no-theft truthful condition. They were interviewed by a researcher who asked for an alibi of their whereabouts during the theft. Results indicated participants used few verifiable details overall, despite being prompted that they would improve the believability of the alibi. Consistent with the cognitive approach, truth-tellers named identifiable witnesses more in their alibis than deceivers. Participants in the high-stakes condition who wrote their alibis first used significantly more references to identifiable people than any other group. Writing the alibi prior to the interview reduced feelings of guilt and increased both motivation and perceptions of success.

Technology-mediated communication has changed the way we interact. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, this trend became even more pronounced. Media interviews are no exception. Yet, studies on nonverbal behaviors, especially nonverbal synchrony during such mediated settings, have been scarce. To fill the research gap, this study investigated synchronized patterns between interview hosts’ and guests’ facial emotional displays and upper body movement during mediated interviews recorded in the countries in Western (mainly the US, with the addition of the UK) and Eastern cultures (Japan). The interviews were categorized into information- or entertainment-driven interviews, depending on the social attributes of the guest. The time series of the valence in facial displays and upper body movement was automatedly measured using FaceReader and Motion Energy Analysis software, respectively, which was analyzed in terms of simultaneous movements, a primary component of synchrony. As predicted, facial synchrony was more prevalent in information-driven interviews, supporting the motivational and strategic account of synchrony. In addition, female-hosted interviews had a higher degree of synchrony, especially in information-driven interviews. Similar patterns were seen in movement synchrony, although not significant. This study is the first evidence of synchrony in technology-mediated interviews in which a host and a guest appear on split-screen to inform or entertain audiences. However, no cultural differences in synchrony were observed. Situational demands in front of the interactants and the goal-driven nature of communication seemed to play a more prominent role than cultural differences in nonverbal synchrony.

Viewed through the lens of the Revelation Risk Model (RRM), we examined whether the perceived riskiness of an activity, relationship type (family, romantic, or friends), and location in the US (California, Oklahoma, or Ohio) influenced whether and how people communicated with close others when refusing an event invitation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we examined how these factors affected their likelihood of attending an event, their likelihood of refusing an invitation, and their anticipation of the effect of the disclosure of their refusal on future interactions. States varied widely in their response to the pandemic and our results suggest this affected participants' responses to the activity scenarios we presented. People from Ohio and California reported less likelihood of attending the event in the high-risk condition than people from Oklahoma. Participants were more likely to make up false excuses for low-risk events to avoid conflict. A three-way interaction between riskiness of the scenario, closeness of the relationship type, and location predicted the effect on future interactions. Implications for the effects of refusals on relationships are discussed.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:This study tests the feasibility of using virtual reality (VR) with older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild-to-moderate dementia with a family member who lives at a distance. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS:21 residents in a senior living community and a family member (who participated in the VR with the older adult from a distance) engaged in a baseline telephone call, followed by 3 weekly VR sessions. RESULTS:Residents and family members alike found the VR safe, extremely enjoyable, and easy to use. The VR was also acceptable and highly satisfying for residents with MCI and dementia. Human and automated coding revealed that residents were more conversationally and behaviorally engaged with their family member in the VR sessions compared to the baseline telephone call and in the VR sessions that used reminiscence therapy. The results also illustrate the importance of using multiple methods to assess engagement. Residents with dementia reported greater immersion in the VR than residents with MCI. However, the automated coding indicated that residents with MCI were more kinesically engaged while using the VR than residents with dementia. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS:Combining networking and livestreaming features in a single VR platform can allow older adults in senior living communities to still travel, relive their past, and engage fully with life with their family members, despite geographical separation and physical and cognitive challenges.

Conflict is a natural but uncomfortable part of all human relationships. Researchers and practitioners alike are interested in developing training and therapeutic methods for teaching couples and families healthy conflict management styles. However, the research literature offers little for practitioners in the way of specific verbal and nonverbal “skills” they can teach to their clients and patients. In this paper, we examine the work of Dr. Steven Winer, educator and practitioner in Communication, with a focus on anger management and conflict resolution in interpersonal relationships. We review the research literature on interpersonal conflict and compare it to the advice offered through Dr. Winer's workshops, which he developed through years of viewing over 4,000 videotapes of communication behavior patterns exhibited by his clients during conflict role-play sessions.

Synchrony is a natural part of human interaction and is often associated with a variety of prosocial outcomes including affinity and rapport. The purpose of this research was to examine whether human negotiators would synchronize their movements when working with non-human avatars and if so, whether that would affect their perceptions of their negotiations. Results suggest that participants synchronized their movements with the movements of non-human negotiation partners, that greater synchrony was observed when participants engaged in an integrative negotiation compared to a distributive negotiation, and participants that engaged in synchrony reported greater affiliation with their non-human partner. Synchrony also lead to giving more to the non-human agent in an integrative negotiation whereas it had no significant impact on the outcomes in a distributive negotiation. Implications for human-machine interaction are discussed.

The majority of deception research to date has focused on deception in the context of dyadic communication. Among this body of research are efforts to identify what signals can be used to discriminate deceivers from non-deceivers. The general form of this research involves observing (typically recording to observe and/or manually code after the fact) relevant behaviors of individuals with ground truth knowledge of which individuals are deceiving and which are not. In this chapter, the general process is discussed, and considerations for extending it from dyadic to group observation are considered. Additionally, this chapter provides details of the particular implementation from which many results described in the remainder of this book are found.