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The Effect of Technology on Human Social Perception: A Multi-methods NeuroIS Pilot Investigation

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Information Systems and Neuroscience

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation ((LNISO,volume 32))

Abstract

Effects of digital communication have been reported, but with only little physiological data backing. The purpose of this pilot study was to use a multi-methods approach to investigate in digital natives the effects of reading from a mobile device, listening to an audio recording and listening to an actual person present, who reads out loud. Self-reported pleasantness and arousal as conscious data, startle reflex modulation, skin conductance and heart rate as non-conscious data were recorded for each condition. The findings indicate that physiological arousal measures tend to match respective self-report measures both indicating higher arousal levels for social conditions. However, physiological valence measures do not match their corresponding self-report measures. Listening to an audio recording and listening to a real person reading were rated as more pleasant than reading alone. However, listening to a present person reading out loud resulted in the most negative subcortical raw affective responses in digital native’s brains.

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Walla, P., Lozovic, S. (2020). The Effect of Technology on Human Social Perception: A Multi-methods NeuroIS Pilot Investigation. In: Davis, F., Riedl, R., vom Brocke, J., Léger, PM., Randolph, A., Fischer, T. (eds) Information Systems and Neuroscience. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28144-1_7

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