How Small Groups React to Distorted Social Feedback

Abstract

Real-time visualization of conversation alters small group dynamics and encourages balanced participation. Visual feedback acts as an automatic moderator that encourages people to balance their relative contribution with that of other group members, but can their contribution be actively shaped by distorting the visualization? To better evaluate the effect of visual feedback during conversation, we purposefully distorted the apparent balance in a shared visualization of conversation, the Conversation Clock. We present a pilot study examining various distortion strategies followed by two studies applying distortion to group discussion in a co-located and a remote setting. Our results indicate that participants will trust and accept a significantly distorted visualization as an accurate representation of conversation However, we found the distorted feedback minimally impacts the dynamics measured in these groups. These findings suggest that the mechanism driving individuals towards balanced conversation lies outside the specifics of the visualization. Identifying that mechanism remains an open problem.