Equilibrium theory revisited: Mutual gaze and personal space in virtual environments
Equilibrium theory revisited: Mutual gaze and personal space in virtual environments
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DOI：
10.1162/105474601753272844
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发表时间：
2001-12-01
影响因子：
1.1
通讯作者：
Loomis, JM
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bailenson, JN;Blascovich, J;Loomis, JM
在二十世纪后半叶，心理学家和人类学家研究了许多背景下人们之间的空间关系或间隔行为。当我们进入二十一世纪时，沉浸式虚拟环境技术为研究人员提供了研究空间关系学的新实验场所。沉浸式虚拟环境提供真实且引人注目的实验设置，而无需牺牲实验控制。这里报告的实验测试了阿盖尔和迪恩（1965）平衡理论的规范，即相互凝视、表示亲密的非语言暗示和人际距离之间的反比关系。参与者沉浸在一个三维虚拟房间中，其中站立着虚拟人类代表（即实体代理）。在记忆任务的幌子下，参与者走向代理人并绕过代理人。通过我们的沉浸式虚拟环境系统自动跟踪参与者和代理之间的距离。所有参与者在特工周围保持的空间都比在大小和形状相似但非人类的物体周围保持的空间更大。女性参与者与与她们进行目光接触（即相互凝视行为）的座席之间保持的人际距离比与不与她们目光接触的座席之间保持的人际距离更大，而男性参与者则没有。讨论了通过沉浸式虚拟环境技术以及虚拟环境和虚拟人的设计对空间关系学研究的影响。
During the last half of the twentieth century, psychologists and anthropologists have studied proxemics, or spacing behavior, among people in many contexts. As we enter the twenty-first century, immersive virtual environment technology promises new experimental venues in which researchers can study proxemics. Immersive virtual environments provide realistic and compelling experimental settings without sacrificing experimental control. The experiment reported here tested Argyle and Dean's (1965) equilibrium theory's specification of an inverse relationship between mutual gaze, a nonverbal cue signaling intimacy, and interpersonal distance. Participants were immersed in a three-dimensional virtual room in which a virtual human representation (that is, an embodied agent) stood. Under the guise of a memory task, participants walked towards and around the agent. Distance between the participant and agent was tracked automatically via our immersive virtual environment system. All participants maintained more space around agents than they did around similarly sized and shaped but nonhuman-like objects. Female participants maintained more interpersonal distance between themselves and agents who engaged them in eye contact (that is, mutual gaze behavior) than between themselves and agents who did not engage them in eye contact, whereas male participants did not. Implications are discussed for the study of proxemics via immersive virtual environment technology, as well as the design of virtual environments and virtual humans.