Eindhoven University of Technology MASTER Gender differences in same and opposite sex mediated social touch affective responses to physical contact in a virtual environment Kosnar, P. Award date: 2012 Link to publication Disclaimer This document contains a student thesis (bachelor's or master's), as authored by a student at Eindhoven University of Technology. Student theses are made available in the TU/e repository upon obtaining the required degree. The grade received is not published on the document as presented in the repository. The required complexity or quality of research of student theses may vary by program, and the required minimum study period may vary in duration. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain Eindhoven, August 2012 Gender differences in same and opposite sex mediated social touch: Affective responses to physical contact in a virtual environment. by Petr Kosnar identity number 0750914 in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Human Technology Interaction Supervisors: dr.ir. Antal Haans prof.dr. Wijnand IJsselsteijn Keywords: virtual reality, touch, tactile perception, gender, interpersonal behaviour, human interaction, social psychology Table of Contents 1 Introduction.........................................................................................................................3 1.1 Nonverbal communication ..........................................................................................4 1.2 Goal of this study ........................................................................................................4 1.3 Touch...........................................................................................................................5 1.3.1 The physiology of touch ..........................................................................................5 1.3.2 Meanings of touch ...................................................................................................7 1.4 Social touch .................................................................................................................7 1.4.1 Consequences of interpersonal touch ......................................................................8 1.4.2 Cultural differences in perception of touch .............................................................9 1.4.3 Proximity, personal space and eye-contact..............................................................9 1.4.4 Gender differences in touching behaviour.............................................................10 1.5 Mediated social touch................................................................................................12 1.5.1 Presence and telepresence......................................................................................12 1.5.2 Haptic communication devices..............................................................................13 1.6 Immersive virtual environment technology (IVET)..................................................13 1.7 Similarities of mediated and non-mediated social (touch) interaction......................16 2 Research questions and hypothesis...................................................................................18 3 Methodology.....................................................................................................................20 3.1 Experimental design..................................................................................................20 3.2 Participants ................................................................................................................20 3.3 Materials and Setting ................................................................................................21 3.3.1 Immersive virtual environment..............................................................................21 3.3.2 Vibrotactile vest.....................................................................................................22 3.4 Measurements............................................................................................................24 3.4.1 Affective response measures .................................................................................24 3.4.2 Physiological measures..........................................................................................24 3.4.3 Post-test questionnaire...........................................................................................25 3.5 Procedure...................................................................................................................26 4 Results...............................................................................................................................29 4.1 Manipulation checks and differences between conditions........................................29 4.2 Effects of gender composition...................................................................................30 4.3 Effects of body location ............................................................................................31 5 Discussion.........................................................................................................................33 5.1 Hypothesis testing .....................................................................................................33 5.2 Explanation of findings .............................................................................................34 1 5.3 Limitations.................................................................................................................36 5.4 Conclusion.................................................................................................................37 Acknowledgments....................................................................................................................39 References................................................................................................................................40 Summary ..................................................................................................................................46 Appendix..................................................................................................................................49 1. Within-test questionnaire ..............................................................................................49 2. Post-test questionnaire ..................................................................................................49 3. Lab session script ..........................................................................................................55 4. Additional figures and tables ........................................................................................56 2 1 Introduction Nowadays, more and more of our interpersonal interactions are becoming mediated, or in other words, used over a distance. Current communication technologies enable us to communicate over a distance, involving a transfer of visual image and voice (e.g. video calls). This kind of mediated communication is already relatively advanced and rich, especially considering the development in this field from last decades. If we look a couple of decades back in history, we can see a vivid and rapid development in the field of communication technologies. For better illustration, let us look very briefly at the history of the development of audio- and video-based communication. The first visual-based remote communication devices consisted of smoke signals and beacons; this was back in prehistoric times. Later in the 6th century BCE, mail came on the scene. It was transferred initially by bearers and messengers, then by pigeons. As development continued, in early 18th century, the heliograph was discovered. For its time, it was a ground-breaking technology that enabled the transfer of messages in real time. The heliograph works on a principle of controlled reflections of a beam of sunlight in a certain direction using a tilting mirror. The reflected flashes of sunlight were captured by another mirror at a remote place, and reflected to the next post, and then in the same manner until its final destination. Later in 19th century, a similar principle was used in communication using signal lamps; except the light source was an artificial lamp, not a beam of sunlight. The first public video phone call between Herbert Hoover and officials of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company occurred in 1927. If we look at the history of development of audio-based remote communication devices, we can also begin in prehistoric times, mentioning remote communication using drums and horns. In the year 1838 the telegraph was invented which allowed people to transfer text messages (encoded in Morse code) over long distances in real time. The telephone was invented few decades later, in 1876, which allowed people to hear the voice of the other over a distance; a great technological improvement of that time. With the arrival of Internet in the second half