| Communication media technologies are becoming increasingly pervasive, making the separation of people's voices from their bodies a commonplace experience. Though the uses of sound reproduction technologies, live audio projection, and telecommunication technologies are becoming increasingly naturalized, we know very little about the psychological effects of people's voices being thrown to locations away from their bodies. Throwing voices involves the decoupling between speech production (i.e., the act of formulating and generating a spoken display) and speech projection (i.e., the act of projecting that spoken display for an audience).;This dissertation approaches this phenomenon with the following research question: How does spatialized audio projection of voices affect perceptions of one's self, the interlocutor, and the communicative interaction between the two? Regarding behaviors, how does spatialized audio projection of voices affect activities such as collaboration, negotiation, and creativity? Regarding perceptions, how does spatialized audio projection of voices affect attitudes about interlocutors and the interaction itself?;In this series of experiments, we found that throwing voices further away from bodies hurts collaborative decision-making agreement between partners (Study 1), helps to achieve more equity in negotiation outcomes of pairs (Study 2), and improves creativity performance in individuals interacting with voice agents (Study 3); increasing one's voice's spatial vertical height also mitigates the effects of increased persuasiveness of others' voices (Study 4).;This dissertation provides four contributions to the understanding of spatialized speech on human perception, communication, and relationships. Its contributions are fourfold. First, it identifies a new independent variable for human psychology and communication: the apparent spatial location of one's voice. Second, it elucidates several effects of the apparent spatial location of one's voice upon communication task performance and perceptions of the interaction, including collaborative decision-making, negotiation, and creative brainstorming. Third, this dissertation provides methodological paradigms with which to study such throwing voices effects. Fourth, these findings point toward a theory of psychological distancing and in-the-moment vs. reflective processes as they relate to the apparent spatial location of one's voice when it is decoupled from the location of one's physical body. |
