Does direct gaze at online meetings enhance the illusion of transparency?

We investigated the psychological effects of continuous gaze from a conversation partner using an application developed by NVIDIA, designed to maintain artificial eye contact. We focused on a phenomenon known as the transparency illusion, in which individuals perceive excessive scrutiny from their conversation partners. We aimed to explore whether the transparency illusion is influenced by factors such as the conversation partner’s natural eyes and artificial gaze. We recruited 57 participants. During the experiment, the participants engaged in a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Subsequently, they were asked to express whether they believed they won or lost the game. The game was played under three distinct conditions: video-off, video-on without artificial gaze, and video-on with artificial gaze. As a result, we could not conclude whether the presence of a gaze or the use of an artificial gaze enhanced the illusion of transparency.