VR Job Interview Using a Gender-Swapped Avatar

Virtual Reality (VR) has emerged as a potential solution for mitigating bias in a job interview by hiding the applicants' demographic features. The current study examines the use of a gender-swapped avatar in a virtual job interview that affects the applicants' perceptions and their performance evaluated by recruiters. With a mixed-method approach, we first conducted a lab experiment (N=8) exploring how using a gender-swapped avatar in a virtual job interview impacts perceived anxiety, confidence, competence, and ability to perform. Then, a semi-structured interview investigated the participants' VR interview experiences using an avatar. Our findings suggest that using gender-swapped avatars may reduce the anxiety that job applicants will experience during the interview. Also, the affinity diagram produced seven key themes highlighting the advantages and limitations of VR as an interview platform. These findings contribute to the emerging field of VR-based recruitment and have practical implications for promoting diversity and inclusion in the hiring process.Comment: CSCW 2022 Poster

SIG on Telepresence Robots

In this document we explain the need and plans for a SIG Meeting at CHI on telepresence robots. We describe the organization of this SIG, our expected attendees, procedure and schedule of topics to be discussed, as well as our recruitment plan. Our goal is to provide a forum to discuss key issues surrounding the uses and usefulness of telepresence robots, including challenges and best practices

Cultural difference and adaptation of communication styles in computer-mediated group brainstorming

Supporting creativity via collaborative group brainstorming is a prevalent practice in organizations. Today’s technology makes it easy for international and intercultural group members to brainstorm together remotely, but surprisingly little is known about how culture and medium shape the underlying brainstorming process. In a laboratory study, we examined the influences of individual cultural background (American versus Chinese), group cultural composition (same- versus mixed-culture groups), and communication medium (text-only versus video-enabled chatrooms) on group brainstorming conversations. Cultural differences and adaptation in conversational talkativeness and responsiveness were identified. The text-only medium reduced cultural differences in talkativeness. Working in a mixed-culture group led to cultural adaptation in the communication style of Chinese but not American participants. We discuss implications for international group brainstorming. Author Keywords Cross-cultural communication, group brainstorming

Social psychological models of interpersonal communication

1.1 Communication and Social Psychology Social psychology traditionally has been defined as the study of the ways in which people affect, and are affected by, others. 1 Communication is one of the primary means by which people affect one another, and, in light of this, one might expect the study of communication t

Work coordination, workflow, and workarounds in a medical context

In this paper we report an ethnographic study of workarounds—informal temporary practices for handling exceptions to normal workflow—in a hospital environment. Workarounds are a common technique for dealing with the inherent uncertainty of dynamic work environments. Workarounds can help coordinate work, especially under conditions of high time pressure, but they may result in information or work protocols that are unstable, unavailable, or unreliable. We investigated workarounds and their effects through observation and interviews in a major teaching medical center. Our results suggest 4 key features of workarounds that technologies might help address: (a) workarounds differ as a function of people’s role; (b) workarounds draw on tacit knowledge of others’ abilities and willingness to help; (c) workarounds can have a cascading effect, causing other workarounds down the line; (d) workarounds often rely on principles of fairness and who owes whom a favor. We provide recommendations for designing systems to better support workarounds in dynamic environments

What's it worth to you? The costs and affordances of CMC tools to Asian and American users

ABSTRACT In recent years, a growing number of studies examining how culture shapes computer-mediated communication (CMC) have appeared in the CHI and CSCW literature. Findings from these studies reveal that cultural differences exist, but no clear underlying explanation can account for results across studies. We describe several limitations of the theoretical frameworks used to motivate many of the prior studies over the past decade, most notably the assumption that tasks and media used in these studies are perceived similarly by participants from different cultural backgrounds. We then describe an interview study in which we asked 22 participants from America, Korea, India and China about their perceptions of media and motivations for media choices in different hypothetical settings. The results suggest cultural differences in how media are perceived, specifically, that the ability for media to support social in addition to task processes is more important for participants from China, Korea and India than for participants from the U.S. We conclude with some recommendations for enhancing CMC theories to account for cultural differences