Heart Rate Sharing at the Workplace
Augmenting online interpersonal communication with biosignals, often in the form of heart rate sharing, has shown promise in increasing affiliation, feelings of closeness, and intimacy. Increasing empathetic awareness in the professional domain and in the customer interface could benefit both custom...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Multimodal Technologies and Interaction |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/5/10/60 |
| _version_ | 1797513663629754368 |
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| author | Valtteri Wikström Mari Falcon Silja Martikainen Jana Pejoska Eva Durall Merja Bauters Katri Saarikivi |
| author_facet | Valtteri Wikström Mari Falcon Silja Martikainen Jana Pejoska Eva Durall Merja Bauters Katri Saarikivi |
| author_sort | Valtteri Wikström |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Augmenting online interpersonal communication with biosignals, often in the form of heart rate sharing, has shown promise in increasing affiliation, feelings of closeness, and intimacy. Increasing empathetic awareness in the professional domain and in the customer interface could benefit both customer and employee satisfaction, but heart rate sharing in this context needs to consider issues around physiological monitoring of employees, appropriate level of intimacy, as well as the productivity outlook. In this study, we explore heart rate sharing at the workplace and study its effects on task performance. Altogether, 124 participants completed a collaborative visual guidance task using a chat box with heart rate visualization. Participants’ feedback about heart rate sharing reveal themes such as a stronger sense of human contact and increased self-reflection, but also raise concerns around unnecessity, intimacy, privacy and negative interpretations. Live heart rate was always measured, but to investigate the effect of heart rate sharing on task performance, half of the customers were told that they were seeing a recording, and half were told that they were seeing the advisor’s live heart beat. We found a negative link between awareness and task performance. We also found that higher ratings of usefulness of the heart rate visualization were associated with increased feelings of closeness. These results reveal that intimacy and privacy issues are particularly important for heart rate sharing in professional contexts, that preference modulates the effects of heart rate sharing on social closeness, and that heart rate sharing may have a negative effect on performance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:19:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-06591dac3f34485680745ae90bb5ebe3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2414-4088 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:19:45Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Multimodal Technologies and Interaction |
| spelling | doaj.art-06591dac3f34485680745ae90bb5ebe32023-11-22T19:21:37ZengMDPI AGMultimodal Technologies and Interaction2414-40882021-10-015106010.3390/mti5100060Heart Rate Sharing at the WorkplaceValtteri Wikström0Mari Falcon1Silja Martikainen2Jana Pejoska3Eva Durall4Merja Bauters5Katri Saarikivi6Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, FinlandCognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, FinlandCognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, FinlandCognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, FinlandLearning Environments Research Group, Aalto University, 02150 Espoo, FinlandLearning Environments Research Group, Aalto University, 02150 Espoo, FinlandCognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, FinlandAugmenting online interpersonal communication with biosignals, often in the form of heart rate sharing, has shown promise in increasing affiliation, feelings of closeness, and intimacy. Increasing empathetic awareness in the professional domain and in the customer interface could benefit both customer and employee satisfaction, but heart rate sharing in this context needs to consider issues around physiological monitoring of employees, appropriate level of intimacy, as well as the productivity outlook. In this study, we explore heart rate sharing at the workplace and study its effects on task performance. Altogether, 124 participants completed a collaborative visual guidance task using a chat box with heart rate visualization. Participants’ feedback about heart rate sharing reveal themes such as a stronger sense of human contact and increased self-reflection, but also raise concerns around unnecessity, intimacy, privacy and negative interpretations. Live heart rate was always measured, but to investigate the effect of heart rate sharing on task performance, half of the customers were told that they were seeing a recording, and half were told that they were seeing the advisor’s live heart beat. We found a negative link between awareness and task performance. We also found that higher ratings of usefulness of the heart rate visualization were associated with increased feelings of closeness. These results reveal that intimacy and privacy issues are particularly important for heart rate sharing in professional contexts, that preference modulates the effects of heart rate sharing on social closeness, and that heart rate sharing may have a negative effect on performance.https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/5/10/60heart rate sharingempathyperformancechatinstant messagingcustomer service |
| spellingShingle | Valtteri Wikström Mari Falcon Silja Martikainen Jana Pejoska Eva Durall Merja Bauters Katri Saarikivi Heart Rate Sharing at the Workplace Multimodal Technologies and Interaction heart rate sharing empathy performance chat instant messaging customer service |
| title | Heart Rate Sharing at the Workplace |
| title_full | Heart Rate Sharing at the Workplace |
| title_fullStr | Heart Rate Sharing at the Workplace |
| title_full_unstemmed | Heart Rate Sharing at the Workplace |
| title_short | Heart Rate Sharing at the Workplace |
| title_sort | heart rate sharing at the workplace |
| topic | heart rate sharing empathy performance chat instant messaging customer service |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/5/10/60 |
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