Social Interaction — Lifelike Laboratory

The physical components of face-to-face social interactions—gaze, proximity, interpersonal touch and chemosignalling—communicate a wealth of information. We have conducted a variety of research using virtual reality and motion capture to understand how subtle changes in nonverbal behaviour emerge within, and influence the outcomes of, interactions. In more recent work, we are examining the potential communication of emotion through chemosignals in the breath.

Relevant publications:

Flockton, J. R., Preston, C. E., & McCall, C. (2025). The Proximity Prediction Hypothesis: How predictive coding of CT-touch explains Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response and its therapeutic applications. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 19, 1688172.

Trifonova, I. V., McCall, C., Fysh, M. C., Bindemann, M., & Burton, A. M. (2024). First impressions from faces in dynamic approach–avoidance contexts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 50(6), 570–586.

McCall, C. (2024). Proxemics. In M. C. Frank & A. Majid (Eds.), Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.399d520e

Croissant, M., Frister, M., Schofield, G., & McCall, C. (2024). An appraisal-based chain-of-emotion architecture for affective language model game agents. Plos one, 19(5), e0301033.

Fysh, M. C., Baker, E., Rockett, J., Allen, J., McCall, C., Burton, A. M., & Bindemann, M. (2024). Queues, crowds, and angry mobs: Face identification under distraction in a virtual airport. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 77(6), 1169-1178.

Fysh, M. C., Trifonova, I. V., Allen, J., McCall, C., Burton, A. M., & Bindemann, M. (2022). Avatars with faces of real people: A construction method for scientific experiments in virtual reality. Behavior research methods 54(3), 1461-1475.

Olivier, J., McCall, C. , Dunham, Y., & Over, H. (2022). Procedural (in) justice in children: Children choose procedures that favor their ingroup. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 215, 105313.

Bindemann, M., Fysh, M. C., Trifonova, I. V., Allen, J., McCall, C., & Burton, A. M. (2022). Face identification in the laboratory and in virtual worlds. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 11(1).

Mckeown, B., Poerio, G. L., Strawson, W. H., Martinon, L. M., Riby, L. M., Jefferies, E., McCall*, C. & Smallwood*, J. (2021). The impact of social isolation and changes in work patterns on ongoing thought during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(40) e2102565118. *joint senior

Eggleston, A., McCall, C., Cook, R., & Over, H. (2021). Parents reinforce the formation of first impressions in conversation with their children. Plos one, 16(8), e0256118.

Lahnakoski, J. M., Forbes, P. A., McCall, C., & Schilbach, L. (2020). Unobtrusive tracking of interpersonal orienting and distance predicts the subjective quality of social interactions. Royal Society open science, 7(8), 191815.

Krohn, S., Tromp, J., Quinque, E. M., Belger, J., Klotzsche, F., Rekers, S., Chojecki, P., de Mooij, J., Akbal, M., McCall, C., Villringer, A., Gaebler, M., Finke, C. & Thöne-Otto, A. (2020). Multidimensional evaluation of virtual reality paradigms in clinical neuropsychology: application of the VR-check framework. Journal of medical Internet research, 22(4), e16724.

Hildebrandt, L. K., McCall, C., & Singer, T. (2019). Socioaffective versus sociocognitive mental trainings differentially affect emotion regulation strategies. Emotion, 19(8), 1329.

Over, H., & McCall, C. (2018). Becoming us and them: Social learning and intergroup bias. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 12(4), e12384.

Bertrand, P., Guegan, J., Robieux, L., McCall, C. , & Zenasni, F. (2018). Learning empathy through virtual reality: Multiple strategies for training empathy-related abilities using body ownership Illusions in embodied virtual reality. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5, 26.

Weick, M., McCall, C., and Blascovich, J. (2017). Power Moves Beyond Complementarity: A Staring Look Elicits Avoidance in Low Power Perceivers and Approach in High Power Perceivers. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

McCall, C. (2016). Mapping Social Interactions: The Science of Proxemics. In M. Wöhr Sören Krach (Eds.), Social Behavior from Rodents to Humans: Neural Foundations and Clinical Implications. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences.

McCall, C., Hildebrandt, L. K., Hartmann, R., Baczkowski, B. M., & Singer, T. (2016). Introducing the Wunderkammer as a tool for emotion research: Unconstrained gaze and movement patterns in three emotionally evocative virtual worlds. Computers in Human Behavior, 59, 93–107.

McCall, C., & Singer, T. (2015). Facing Off with Unfair Others: Introducing Proxemic Imaging as an Implicit Measure of Approach and Avoidance during Social Interaction, PLoS ONE.

McCall, C. (2013). Social Cognition in the Cyborg Age: Embodiment and the Internet. Psychological Inquiry, 24, 314–320.

McCall, C. & Singer, T. (2012). The animal and human neuroendocrinology of social cognition, motivation and behavior. Nature Neuroscience, 15, 681–688.

Ma-Kellams, C., Blascovich, J., & McCall, C. (2012). Culture and the body: East–West differences in visceral perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 718–728.

Kane, H., McCall, C., Collins, N., & Blascovich, J.B. (2012). Mere presence is not enough: Responsive support in a virtual world. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(1), 37–44.

Stel, M., Blascovich, J., McCall, C., Mastop, J., Van Baaren, R.B., & Vonk, R. (2010). Mimicking disliked others: Effects of a priori liking on the mimicry-liking link. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40,876–880.

Stel, M., Van Baaren, R., Blascovich, J., McCall, C., Pollmann, M.M.H., van Leeuwen, Mastop, J., & Vonk, R. (2010). Effects of a priori liking on the elicitation of mimicry. Experimental Psychology, 57, 412–418.

McCall, C., Bunyan, D.P., Bailenson, J.B., Blascovich, J., & Beall, A. (2009). Leveraging Collaborative Virtual Environment Technology for Inter-Population Research on Persuasion in a Classroom Setting. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 18, 361–369.

McCall, C. & Blascovich, J. (2009) How, when, and why to use digital experimental virtual environments to study social behavior. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 3: 744–758.

McCall, C., Blascovich, J., Young, A, Persky, S. (2009) Using immersive virtual environments to measure proxemic behavior and to predict aggression. Social Influence, 4, 138–154.

Gillath, O., McCall, C.A., Shaver, P., Blascovich J.B. (2008) Reactions to a needy virtual person: Using an immersive virtual environment to measure prosocial tendencies. Media Psychology, 11, 259–282.

Guadagno, R.E., Blascovich, J., Bailenson, J.N., McCall, C. (2007). Virtual humans and persuasion: The effects of agency and behavioral realism. Media Psychology, 10, 1–22.