Technology-driven Alteration of Nonverbal Cues and its Effects on Negotiation
This paper addresses the impact of technology on nonverbal communication in negotiations, which is relevant for negotiators, technology developers, and policymakers concerned with fair and ethical interactions.
This paper explores how real-time video communication technologies, including 2D/3D representations and deepfakes, can explicitly and implicitly alter nonverbal cues during negotiations. It discusses the implications of these technological advances for the negotiation landscape and highlights associated ethical considerations.
A person's appearance, identity, and other nonverbal cues can substantially influence how one is perceived by a negotiation counterpart, potentially impacting the outcome of the negotiation. With recent advances in technology, it is now possible to alter such cues through real-time video communication. In many cases, a person's physical presence can explicitly be replaced by 2D/3D representations in live interactive media. In other cases, technologies such as deepfake can subtly and implicitly alter many nonverbal cues -- including a person's appearance and identity -- in real-time. In this article, we look at some state-of-the-art technological advances that can enable such explicit and implicit alteration of nonverbal cues. We also discuss the implications of such technology for the negotiation landscape and highlight ethical considerations that warrant deep, ongoing attention from stakeholders.