We focus on the communication tools (CT) as a means of supporting the psychological well-being of an increasing number of isolated older individuals. We conducted an analysis of the psychological effects of current CT usage using the psychosocial ...

In avatar-mediated communications, users often cannot identify how others’ avatars are created, which is one of the important information they need to evaluate others. Thus, we tested a social virtual world that is transparent about others’ avatar-...

Using chatbots to make recommendations is increasingly popular. The design of recommendation chatbots has mainly been taking an information-centric approach by focusing on the recommended content per se. Limited attention is on how social connection and ...

Mental health problems are prevalent issues in modern society. While psychological counseling has been a traditional solution, it faces such barriers as negative societal perceptions and limited accessibility. To overcome these, researchers have explored ...

Conversational agents have a potential in improving student mental wellbeing while assisting them in self-disclosure activities such as journalling. Their embodiment might have an effect on what students disclose, and how they disclose this, and student'...

Organizations benefit from including employees with dissimilar values and perspectives, but their ability to realize these benefits is constrained by the degree to which those holding the dissimilar values (i.e., value minorities) feel comfortable ...

In social VR, users can communicate with others through their avatars, and their appearance can be customized. In communication using avatars, previous research revealed that avatars with dissimilar appearances to the user encourage greater self-...

During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people shared their symptoms across Online Social Networks (OSNs) like Twitter, hoping for others’ advice or moral support. Prior studies have shown that those who disclose health-related information ...

Online music platforms that include social networking features sometimes become supportive social communities where young people can disclose their emotional distress and receive support. However, few studies have examined young people's disclosure in ...

Self-disclosure to a social robot is a mental health intervention that can decrease stress for adolescents. Online digital robots provide the potential to scale this intervention especially in COVID-19 social distancing situations. However, self-...

Considering the importance of self-disclosure in building relationships, it is vital to investigate how self-disclosure is affected via avatars in virtual environments, as they are likely to become increasingly popular. Previous work has shown that using ...

Virtual humans demonstrate the ability to act as non-judgmental conversational partners, eliciting greater self-disclosure. However, it is unclear what virtual human and conversational characteristics are important when self-disclosing. To address this ...

Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) such as Alexa and Google Home that use human-like design cues are an increasingly popular means for accessing news. Self-disclosure in particular may be used to build relationships of trust with users who may reveal intimate ...

Current Social VR literature provides limited insight on one of the most critical behaviors for developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships: self-disclosure. Therefore, we present an online survey (N = 126) investigating how users disclose ...

Though existing social technologies provide new opportunities for individuals to make new friends outside of their busy schedules, the lack of assistance to scaffold interactions creates anxiety and high mental efforts that make initiating and ...

Self-disclosing one's life experiences is known to be beneficial to the psychological health of older adults, from the viewpoint of integrity. It has been shown that people tend to self-disclose more to the people they are fond of. For improving ...

Use and design of dating apps has evolved in recent years to accommodate other interaction goals beyond dating, prompting some researchers to now refer to these apps as people-nearby applications (PNAs). With this expansion of use comes increased ...

Live streaming is a form of media that allows streamers to directly interact with their audience. Previous research has explored mental health, Twitch.tv and live streaming platforms, and users' social motivations behind watching live streams separately. ...

The current research focuses on two closed Facebook groups founded and operated by women, and targets an exclusively female audience with over 100,000 members in each. By analysing 433 posts from one group (study 1), and 1,070 from another (study 2), this ...

People often strive to present themselves authentically on social media, but this may not be possible for everyone. To understand how people view online authenticity, how it relates to social media sharing behaviors, and whether it is achievable, we ...