Under The Microscope

The Media Equation

THE MEDIA EQUATION by Byron Reeves & Clifford Nass; Cambridge University Press, 1996; 305 pp; $64.95

Reviewed by Craig Webster

This book presents a series of social psychology experiments which demonstrate that in almost all respects people treat media representations of people and places like the real thing. The rules and social cues which apply to interactions with other people subconsciously apply to interactions with a face on a screen, or a computer interface, or a disembodied voice.

People interacting with a computer which praises them for their performance on a quiz will attribute the same characteristics to the computer as they would to a person who praises -- the computer will be seen as more competent and its feedback will be more valued. Social attribution can even occur with an interface as technologically unsophisticated as text on a screen.

Why we act this way can be explained by our brain's evolutionary past -- during the evolution of the brain all entities which looked or behaved like people were exactly that, there were no artificial representations. Representations in media are therefore interpreted naturally, that is, as they would appear in the world. So while our conscious minds are sophisticated enough to tell the difference and may deny interacting in a social manner with media, our old subconscious does not make the distinction.

These findings have important and interesting ramifications for everything from television and print advertising to the design of computer interfaces. There are also consequences for artificial intelligence and the Turing Test. If the social qualities of an interface can be perfected it may be easier than has previously been thought to design a software entity which is seen as intelligent since users are actually predisposed to make social attributions at face value.

The natural way media is interpreted also dictates the way events should occur on a screen to maximum understanding and attention. If the editing methods used by a film-maker produce representations of events which stray too far from the way they could occur in the world -- for example by events being too disjointed or mixed up -- the viewer will not attend to or remember the film's contents very well. Anyone involved in the design of technology which interacts with people would be likely to benefit from reading this book.

Craig Webster is currently a clinical researcher in the Anaesthetics Department at Auckland's Green Lane Hospital.