Old problems and new technology : an evolutionary perspective on emotion in HCI

Abstract

WHAT DO I KNOWALREADY? With a background in media psychology and evolutionary psychology, I am accustomed to a biologically grounded perspective that asks for the – speaking in evolutionary terms – ultimate reasons for human experience and behavior. Human beings represent the outcome of a long-lasting process of natural selection. A considerable and rather recent portion of this process occurred when humans existed in nomadic, small groups of hunter-gatherers. Compared to this phylogenetic episode, the short time that has passed since the emergence of modern communication technology resembles the blink of an eye. Within about five generations, verbal communication ceased to be an exclusive domain of interpersonal, face-to-face interaction. It became possible to communicate across space, time, and to large audiences. Just within the last generation, computers were enabled to interact with their users via natural language interfaces in everyday situations. Thus, verbal communication first became detached from the spatial and temporal co-presence of other human beings, and could then occur entirely without a human interaction partner. Because this short, recent period represents a negligible duration for evolutionary processes, the use of modern media technology is presumed to still function based on the archaic mechanisms that constitute the human mind’s evolved capacity. Therefore, psychological and communication research has considered the evolved functioning of the human mind in their study of human experience and behavior during interaction with modern media technology. So far, numerous studies have used the frameworks of media equation [7, 8] and computers are social actors (CASA) [4–6] to gather evidence on the social mechanisms that are active during HCI situations.