Automatic Modeling of Dominance Effects Using Granger Causality

We propose the use of Granger Causality to model the effects that dominant people induce on the other participants' behavioral patterns during small group interactions. We test the proposed approach on a dataset of brainstorming and problem solving tasks collected using the sociometric badges' accelerometers. The expectation that more dominant people have generalized higher influence is not borne out; however some more nuanced patterns emerge. In the first place, more dominant people tend to behave differently according to the nature of the task: during brainstorming they engage in complex relations where they simultaneously play the role of influencer and of influencee, whereas during problem solving they tend to be influenced by less dominant people. Moreover, dominant people adopt a complementarity stance, increasing or decreasing their body activity in an opposite manner to their influencers. On the other hand, less dominant people react (almost) as frequently with mimicry as with complementary. Finally, we can also see that the overall level of influence in a group can be associated with the group's performance, in particular for problem solving task. © 2011 Springer-Verlag