At Home or at the Office? Affiliation in Face-to-Face Interactions and Video Calls: Behavioral and Brain Effects

This project investigated whether interaction modality, face-to-face (F2F) vs. video-mediated, and task context, cooperation vs. competition, influence interpersonal affiliation, and its neurocognitive mechanisms. In Experiment 1, participants engaged in structured video-mediated and F2F group interactions. Affiliation was assessed using peer-rated liking, trust, and affiliative intent (Social Relations Model partner effects), along with AI-based analysis of nonverbal behavior. In Experiment 2, a subsample completed EEG tasks measuring emotion recognition and discrimination of genuine versus posed smiles from previously encountered people.Affiliative evaluations were stable across modalities and task contexts. Contrary to predictions, video-mediated interaction did not reduce liking or trust relative to F2F. However, modality shaped behavioral expression: video-mediated interactions involved greater speaking time and more genuine smiles, whereas F2F interactions elicited more gaze engagement. Predictive models revealed that speaking time emerged as the strongest behavioral predictor of being liked.EEG findings revealed that prior F2F interaction did not enhance perceptual efficiency in emotion categorization. Instead, it increased the amplitude of ERP components, reflecting enhanced identity-related (N250) and evaluative processing of genuine affiliative facial expressions (P3). F2F experience selectively improved discrimination of genuine smiles, suggesting heightened sensitivity to authentic affiliative cues. Together, results indicate that affiliation is resilient to technological mediation in structured interactions, while F2F experience reweights neurocognitive processing toward socially meaningful signals.