The effect of mediation on impression formation: a comparison of face-to-face and video-mediated conditions

It is suggested that communication mediated by video may have an important impact on the way in which individuals are perceived and this might be a result of an attenuation or distortion of visual signals. The current study aimed to test this further by employing a simple mind-reading task, which gave participants an opportunity to interact with one another. Participants completed the task in pairs either face-to-face or via video-mediated technologies. After completing the task, participants filled in a questionnaire which was designed to assess perceptions of how much they liked and how intelligent they believed their partner in the task to be. Results indicate that participants were regarded as significantly less likeable and intelligent in the video-mediated condition. This is probably a consequence of the attenuation of visual signals, in particular eye gaze, which has been shown to be important in impression formation. Findings from this study have practical implications for using this type of technology to assess performance, for example in interviews, especially if comparisons are made with face-to-face interviewees.