Webcams and videophones may hinder communication, rather than improve it, says a British psychologist.
Adam Joinson of Open University asked pairs of strangers to resolve a dilemma. He found that the students revealed four times as much about themselves when they typed their comments anonymously over the internet, rather than talking face to face.
He then attached webcams to some of the computers so one set of students could see each other typing. 鈥淎gain, people who were communicating using text only disclosed four times more than people who could see who they were communicating with,鈥� he says.
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He adds: 鈥淭he research suggests that, at least for social communication, webcams and videophones should be discouraged, to say the least.鈥�
Sue Briggs of the University of Northumbria agrees. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a growing amount of evidence to suggest that people find it easier to communicate certain sorts of topics over the internet rather than face to face,鈥� she says.
Previous studies have shown that patients reveal more to medical computer programs than to human doctors.
Joinson asked 83 pairs of students: if only five people could be saved from a nuclear holocaust, who should they be?
The anonymous pairs disclosed much more information about 鈥減rimarily inane things鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey were talking about what courses they studied, what they did last night, although some also discussed their children, their heroes and sexual fantasy figures.鈥�
Joinson thinks being anonymous and unseen forces people to make more effort to express their thoughts and feelings. He also thinks it makes people feel less self-conscious and accountable, and so more self-revealing.
The students who could see their partner鈥檚 face concentrated less on their own feelings and thoughts, he says.
鈥淎nonymity only really leads to revelation when you鈥檙e focused on yourself. When the students were visually anonymous, but had a video of the Simpsons running while they typed, there were absolutely miniscule levels of self-disclosure.鈥�
Although the students were strangers, Joinson thinks the same effects on communication would be observed between friends. 鈥淏eing aware that other people are looking at you is going to influence you negatively whether it鈥檚 someone you know or not,鈥� he says.
Joinson thinks the increasing trend towards using webcams will mean 鈥渓ower quality social communication.鈥�
鈥淯ntil recently, all psychological theories concerning the phone and the internet stressed what you lost when you couldn鈥檛 see the person. My research has found that it isn鈥檛 what you lose when you talk over the net that鈥檚 important 鈥� it鈥檚 what you gain.鈥�
Briggs agrees. She thinks webcams may be very useful in certain situations 鈥� for teleconferencing for instance. 鈥淧eople turn to electronic forms of communication because they don鈥檛 have to gear up to the whole social environment,鈥� she says.
鈥淭he mobile phone industry is talking about introducing mini cameras to allow mobile videophones 鈥� but videophone technology was good years ago and nobody wanted it.鈥�
Joinson reported his findings at a British Psychological Society conference in London on 20 December.
