Social Interaction

The physical components of face-to-face social interactions—gaze, proximity, interpersonal touch and chemosignalling—communicate a wealth of information. We have conducted a variety of research using virtual reality and motion capture to understand how subtle changes in nonverbal behaviour emerge within, and influence the outcomes of, interactions. In more recent work, we are examining the potential communication of emotion through chemosignals in the breath.

Relevant publications:

Weick, M., McCall, C., and Blascovich, J. (2017). Power Moves Beyond Complementarity: A Staring Look Elicits Avoidance in Low Power Perceivers and Approach in High Power Perceivers. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

McCall, C. (2016). Mapping Social Interactions: The Science of Proxemics. In M. Wöhr Sören Krach (Eds.), Social Behavior from Rodents to Humans: Neural Foundations and Clinical Implications. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences.

McCall, C., Hildebrandt, L. K., Hartmann, R., Baczkowski, B. M., & Singer, T. (2016). Introducing the Wunderkammer as a tool for emotion research: Unconstrained gaze and movement patterns in three emotionally evocative virtual worlds. Computers in Human Behavior, 59, 93–107.

McCall, C., & Singer, T. (2015). Facing Off with Unfair Others: Introducing Proxemic Imaging as an Implicit Measure of Approach and Avoidance during Social Interaction, PLoS ONE.

McCall, C. (2013). Social Cognition in the Cyborg Age: Embodiment and the Internet. Psychological Inquiry, 24, 314–320.

McCall, C. & Singer, T. (2012). The animal and human neuroendocrinology of social cognition, motivation and behavior. Nature Neuroscience, 15, 681–688.

Ma-Kellams, C., Blascovich, J., & McCall, C. (2012). Culture and the body: East–West differences in visceral perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 718–728.

Kane, H., McCall, C., Collins, N., & Blascovich, J.B. (2012). Mere presence is not enough: Responsive support in a virtual world. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,  48(1), 37–44.

Stel, M., Blascovich, J., McCall, C., Mastop, J., Van Baaren, R.B., & Vonk, R. (2010). Mimicking disliked others: Effects of a priori liking on the mimicry-liking link. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40,876–880.  

Stel, M., Van Baaren, R., Blascovich, J., McCall, C., Pollmann, M.M.H., van Leeuwen, Mastop, J., & Vonk, R. (2010). Effects of a priori liking on the elicitation of mimicry. Experimental Psychology, 57, 412–418. 

McCall, C., Bunyan, D.P., Bailenson, J.B., Blascovich, J., & Beall, A. (2009).  Leveraging Collaborative Virtual Environment Technology for Inter-Population Research on Persuasion in a Classroom Setting. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 18, 361–369.

McCall, C. & Blascovich, J. (2009) How, when, and why to use digital experimental virtual environments to study social behavior. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 3: 744–758.

McCall, C., Blascovich, J., Young, A, Persky, S. (2009) Using immersive virtual environments to measure proxemic behavior and to predict aggression. Social Influence, 4, 138–154.

Gillath, O., McCall, C.A., Shaver, P., Blascovich J.B. (2008) Reactions to a needy virtual person: Using an immersive virtual environment to measure prosocial tendencies. Media Psychology, 11, 259–282.

Guadagno, R.E., Blascovich, J., Bailenson, J.N., McCall, C. (2007). Virtual humans and persuasion: The effects of agency and behavioral realism. Media Psychology, 10, 1–22.