Over time, our mode of remote communication has evolved from written letters
to telephones, email, internet chat rooms, and videoconferences. Similarly,
collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) promise to further change the nature
of remote interaction. CVEs are systems which track verbal and nonverbal signals
of multiple interactants and render those signals onto avatars, three-dimensional,
digital representations of people in a shared digital space. In this talk,
I describe a series of projects that explore the manners in which CVEs can
qualitatively change the nature of remote communication. Unlike telephone
conversations and videoconferences, interactants in CVEs have the ability
to systematically filter the physical appearance and behavioral actions of
their avatars in the eyes of their conversational partners, amplifying or
suppressing features and nonverbal signals in real-time for strategic purposes.
These transformations can have a drastic impact on interactants' persuasive
and instructional abilities. Furthermore, using CVEs, behavioral researchers
can use this mismatch between performed and perceived behavior as a tool to
examine complex patterns of nonverbal behavior with nearly perfect experimental
control and great precision. Implications for communications systems, marketing
strategies, and behavioral science research will be discussed..