A Systematic Review of Social Presence: Definition, Antecedents, and Implications

“Studies suggest that higher levels of social presence are more beneficial in equivocal contexts wherein there is no “correct” outcome, such as negotiations (Daft and Lengel, 1986; Garau et al., 2003).”

“Incontrast to immersion, presence is the subjective experience of actually being in the mediated virtual environment (Slater and Wilbur, 1997; Witmer and Singer, 1998; Walther and Parks, 2002).”

“…with a virtual cat, view virtual humans in pain CA Canada Short et al., 1976; Nowak and Biocca, 2003 Engage in a video call with a remote participant using a telepresence robot AP Korea Choi et al., 2001 Short et al., 1976; Lombard, 1995 affordance(s) that influenced perceptions of social presence.”

“Telepresence can be defined as “the extent to which one feels present in the mediated environment, rather than in the immediate physical environment” (Steuer, 1992, p. 75).”

“Walther (1996) later expanded this theory to posit that people who communicate via text-based CMC platforms could, in some cases, achieve even higher levels of social presence than FtF interactants by carefully selecting which facets of themselves they wish to reveal (i.e., hyperpersonal model of…”

“When the perception of telepresence is strong, people should no longer be aware that their experiences are being mediated through technology (Lombard and Ditton, 1997).”

“William Gibson famously described cyberspace as a “consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation” ( Gibson, 1984, p. 51), portraying the social nature of “stepping through a barrier” (Slater and Wilbur, 1997, p. 2) into the virtual environment.”

“One significant concept that was not included due to this criterion was plausibility illusion (Slater, 2009).”

“In contrast to these medium-centric views of social presence, Walther (1992) argued that individuals are capable of adapting to different communication media, and can thus achieve their communication goals accordingly.”

“…al., 2013 Gerhard et al., 2001; Bailenson et al., 2005 Interact with a virtual cat, view virtual humans in pain CA Canada Short et al., 1976; Nowak and Biocca, 2003 Engage in a video call with a remote participant using a telepresence robot AP Korea Choi et al., 2001 Short et al., 1976; Lombard,…”

“Each node corresponds to an alter, and an edge ( i, j ) ∈ E c indicates that alters i and j cannot be scheduled in the same time slot.”

“Research indicates that higher social presence can strengthen users’ emotional investment and trust levels (Oh et al., 2018).”

“The researchers found a relationship between immersion and Social Presence [Bulu 2012; Oh et al. 2018].”

“Furthermore, social presence is positively correlated with trust, enjoyment, and perceived usefulness on online shopping websites, which in turn stimulates a stronger purchasing intention among user (Oh et al., 2018).”

“While this demonstrates virtual to physical influence, it does not directly address visual consistency (both virtual human and robotic arm is visible), which is important for maintaining presence [9].”

“Users are more likely to see them as real social beings, rather than just digital objects, when they can interact with them [36, 37, 48, 61].”

“Therefore, VR can significantly enhance users’ sense of social presence, making them feel as if they are sharing the same physical space (Oh et al., 2018).”

“Also, it shapes how users perceive others as social beings, strengthening both enjoyment and social influence [43].”

“…theory helps explain that technologies can exhibit different levels of human-likeness, or humanness based on factors such as the presence of social cues, anthropomorphism in virtual agents, and the type of technology and medium used (Lankton et al., 2015; Oh et al., 2018; Tsai et al., 2021).”

“Scholars concur that high social presence leads to social influence, wherein individuals feel as if they are interacting with another human and are likely to be more persuaded by them (Oh, Bailenson, and Welch 2018).”

“Studies in shared virtual environments have found that social dimensions, such as experiencing a narrative alongside SIAs or other users, can positively impact user experience and the feeling of being part of the story world [20] [14].”

“To enable seamless interactions, it is crucial to provide appropriate and rich sensory feedback that closely replicates real-world experiences [4], [5].”

“Previous research has demonstrated that the presence of others can shape our perceptions, motivations and experiences, even in virtual or online environments [54].”

“Numerous studies have shown that social presence is a prerequisite for online social interaction to take place and how it unfolds (Oh et al., 2018).”

“Some scholars distinguish between the sensations of being situated in a mediated environment, separate from one ’ s physical body-space, and the experience of being with others (Biocca, 1997; Oh et al., 2018).”

“A technological feature that influences the sense of social presence is the communication modality used [37].”

“The relationship between these factors and social presence is dynamic and may change over time due to differing expectations users have towards technology [20].”

“Beyond text-based interactions, these agents can be visually embodied as 3D virtual characters, providing a sense of spatial co-presence—the feeling of being together in the same space—when delivered through immersive technologies like Virtual/Augmented Reality (VR/AR) [4].”

“In a live-streaming environment, social presence plays a critical role in fostering engagement between streamers and audiences, enhancing the sense of connectedness within the live-streaming experience (Oh et al., 2018).”

“For example, while the avatar unilaterally presented the information in this study, the use of more interactive partner avatars can heighten social presence [62].”

“…felt the lowest level of social presence when communicating via text-based CMC [Computer-Mediated Communication] compared to ‘richer’ forms of media [such as audio, video, or avatar],” while “the strength of audiovisual modal - ities over audio-only modalities is less clear” (Oh et al., 2018 : 20).”

“Oh, Bailenson, and Welch (2018) explore social presence within virtual reality interactions.”

“As such, the construct of presence can be divided into three main dimensions: Spatial Presence , Social Presence , and Self-Presence (the introduction in the work by Oh et al. [45] superbly distinguishes between these).”

“Using these methods, researchers investigate which factors are related to and can improve social interaction [3].”

“Immediacy measures the psychological distance between communicators and their communication targets and is conveyed through verbal and nonverbal behaviours that enhance or reduce perceived closeness (Oh et al., 2018).”

“Social presence is seen as being with real people in a virtual environment [31, 32].”

“Individuals with high social anxiety or communication barriers often feel uncomfortable in the presence of others (Oh et al., 2018).”

“Social presence refers to the sense or feeling of being there with another person (Oh et al., 2018).”

“Moreover, its utility extends to educational endeavors [5], entertainment realms such as gaming [6], and innovative tele-presence setups, enriching social interactions through tactile augmentation [7].”

“Currently, one of the main efforts of tech giants like Meta and Microsoft is towards the achievement of the so-called “social presence” during remote interactions among people [1], i.e., the sense of “being there” in a digital environment together with other connected users.”

“Several theories, including social presence theory [9, 27], cues-filtered-out theory [42], media richness theory [18], and social information processing theory [41], have explored the role of communication bandwidth and nonverbal cues.”

“In addition, behavioral realism, the extent to which a VR character/actor behaves in a way that is similar to how an actual person would, predicts social presence, the sense that one is sharing a virtual space with another person (Oh, Bailenson, & Welch, 2018).”

“Nonverbal cues play an important role in enhancing the social presence of users in the virtual environment [18, 37], and researchers adopt these two different approaches in supporting nonverbal cues in the virtual environment: (1) transferring the users’ behavior from the real to the virtual world…”

“In addition, Oh et al. [48]’s systematic review explains how and when it improves virtual user experience (UX).”

“Prior work has studied related but distinct constructs such as social presence (the degree to which one agent views another as physically present) [17], [29], and perceived robot autonomy [18].”

“The perception of a high presence can improve the quality of interaction and the level of interpersonal closeness (Oh et al., 2018) The quality of visualization and realism in a virtual environment can affect user interaction and perception.”

“Oh (2018) categorized the factors that enhance social presence into three: quality of immersion, characteristics of context, and personal characteristics [7].”

“Oh et al., 2018; Xu et al., 2011).”

“…years, so that in fl uential theories in various ways now include factors such as time, users ’ use of a medium ’ s affordances, users ’ inclination to feel presence and ascription of meaning and context (understood in different ways) (e.g., Löwenthal and Snelson 2017; Oh et al. 2018; Walther 2011).”

“Things that may have a significant impact on social presence in VR are the design of virtual humans (appearances, personality, behaviors, and amount of interaction) as well as the consistency between behavioral and photographic re-alism (Oh et al., 2018).”

“This underscores technological factors like immersion (among others, etc.) that have been previously studied [6] and predict or enhance [16] social presence, as they variably facilitate nonverbal immediacy behaviors.”

“Our findings align with related research suggesting that real social contexts, among other low-stakes contexts, elicit a more positive reaction than performance-based or other VR scenarios [57].”

“From a more practical perspective, research has identified various antecedents of social presence and how to address them through technology, such as visual representation, interactivity, audio quality, and haptic feedback [OBW18].”

“Finally, and importantly, social presence is mostly hypothesized to lead to more positive social outcomes, which may not always be true [OBW18, p. 25]: individuals who are less socially oriented or who feel uncomfortable during social interactions may benefit less from increased social presence.”

“Social presence , or the feeling of being there with a "real" person, is a crucial user experience when interacting with a virtual person [86].”

“While Oh et al. [22] suggest that social presence can be enhanced by using behaviorally realistic virtual avatars, it is unclear how these social cues interplay with media consumption.”

“…a ‘real’ person, refers to the sense of being with another and is a crucial component of interactions and is dependent on the ease with which one perceives to have the access to the intelligence, intentions, and sensory impressions of another (Oh et al., 2018; Biocca et al., 2003; Biocca, 1997).”

“Social presence (SOC) is a feeling of being with a real person and the sense of connection with others in the communication process of using media (Oh, Bailenson, & Welch, 2018).”

“The nature of the task also plays a crucial role, as collaborative scenarios elicit greater social presence than competitive or independent tasks [43, 63, 65].”

“Such responsive cues may strengthen social presence when they are experienced as appropriately connected to the performer’s actions (Oh et al., 2018).”