Turn-taking Patterns Reflect Social Connection in Virtual Reality Conversations

Turn-taking, alternating speaker roles in conversation, is a fundamental aspect of human communication. Recently, Templeton et al. demonstrated that perceived social connection can be predicted by the response time of turn-taking in face-to-face conversations. Our study replicates this finding and investigates the relationship between other turn-taking patterns and social connection in a virtual environment. In our experiment, participants (N=52) engaged in ten-minute conversations with an avatar and rated their perceived social connection at 30-second intervals. Turn-taking patterns was extracted from the recorded conversation audio. Within conversations, our results show that fast and consistent responses, frequent turn-taking, and prolonged spoken time positively impacted social connection. Across conversations, quick and consistent responses and frequent turn-taking enhanced social connection. These findings suggest that turn-taking dynamics can predict perceived social experiences in VR.