Social Presence in Virtual World Interviews

Introduction

Survey modes vary according to communication technology and presentation format. Surveys are administered via paper, telephone, and web, and can be self-administered or interviewer-administered, or a combination of both. All of the types of technology listed above have been used to present surveys in visual, auditory, or mixed format. Additionally, surveys vary by the extent of social presence in the interview setting from no social presence in a self-administered survey to high social presence in an in-person interviewer-administered survey. A persistent question in survey research is the extent to which social presence in the interview setting is desired.

The concept of social presence, a type of presence, or telepresence, has been the subject of much exploration (Lombard & Jones, 2007). It has been defined broadly as “a sense of being with another” (Biocca, Harms, & Burgoon, 2003, p. 456) and more specifically as “a psychological state in which virtual (para-authentic or artificial) social actors are experienced as actual social actors in either sensory or nonsensory ways” (Lee, 2004, p. 37). Biocca, Harms, and Burgoon (2003) assert that the internet is an inherently social place where applications and environments are designed to increase social presence.