| Despite past predictions that videoconferencing would be widely used, the reality is that other communication channels, such as telephone and e-mail, are far more dominant. The Information Systems literature has identified some shortcomings that can help to explain the lack of adoption. For instance, communication at a distance tends to be more formal and less social information is exchanged, leading to delayed and more fragile trust. Normal conversational mechanisms, such as turn taking, can be hampered by uni-directional sound and difficulty interpreting gaze directions.; Separating screen and camera can also cause loss of eye contact. The effect of lack of eye contact on interpersonal trust has not been directly measured. Review of the literature does show that decreased eye contact is generally regarded as a sign of deception, but also, that this assumption is wrong. However, the perception continues to persist, and we do not know if and how much it affects our willingness to trust other people. If it does, it would help explain the lack of adoption of videoconferencing as a communication channel. The goal of this research is to measure the effect of perceived lack of eye contact on interpersonal trust in a controlled setting and to help fill this void in the literature. Results of this research may help redirect equipment use in videoconferencing. Vendors of mobile devices are now starting to include cameras in their equipment, and the short distance between the screen and camera significantly increases eye contact as long as the participant looks at his conversation partner on the screen. If this helps to increase interpersonal trust (or conversely, decrease the lack of interpersonal trust), the use of mobile devices for videoconferencing should be preferred over the use of traditional equipment, such as cameras capturing groups or individual desktop video cameras. |
