Body Language Without a Body: Nonverbal Communication in Technology Mediated Settings

Humans are wired for face-to-face interaction because this was the only possible and available setting during the long evolutionary process that has led to Homo Sapiens. At the moment an increasingly significant fraction of our interactions take place in technology mediated settings, it is important to investigate how such a wiring - mainly corresponding to neural processes - reacts and adapts to them. This 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 settings 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 better address human needs), but also from a societal one (it can help to understand major phenomena such as cyberbullyism and virality)