Effects of Multitasking During Interpersonal Video Chats

Even when engaged in synchronous dyadic video chats, individuals can be distracted from their communication partner. Drawing on the concept of crosstalk in face-to-face interactions, two studies explored the impact of a video chat partner’s distraction on perceptions of that partner’s social attractiveness, electronic propinquity, conversational immediacy, and social presence. The first study (N = 40) used a survey to have respondents recall and describe three specific prior social dyadic video chats (i.e. dyadic, dual front mediated crosstalk, collective mediated crosstalk), and then provide metrics of study variables for each episode and partner. The second study (N = 87) used an online experiment to expose participants to one of three video chat vignettes in which one partner engaged in one of three forms of crosstalk. Results extend the concept of crosstalk into fully mediated interactions, evidencing lower perceptions of conversational characteristics (i.e. electronic propinquity, conversational immediacy, social presence) as dyad partners were more distracted away from the video chat, though relational perceptions of the partner (i.e. social attractiveness) remained generally stable.