Book review

The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television and New Media Like Real People and Places

Cambridge University Press 1996
Authors: Byron Reeves, Clifford Nass

Review by Donald Clark - Epic

The Media Equation has been around for a while now, but with the slowdown in adoption of e-learning on this side of the Atlantic leading some to question whether computer-based training can really produce involving learning experiences, it's a timely read.

The basic thrust of the book, written by two Stanford academics, is that people confuse media with real life (if you've ever given a piece of technology hardware a pet name, or flashed a reproachful glare at a recalcitrant ATM, you'll know what we're talking about here). 'People can't always overcome the powerful assumption that mediated presentations are actual people and objects.'

Children do it because they're young; computer newbies because they lack experience in the medium they're using; but the rest of us have only one excuse. We do it because… we're programmed that way. 'Acceptance of what only seems to be real, even though at times inappropriate, is automatic.'

Evolution is to blame, apparently. The tendency to take anything that appears to exhibit human and social characteristics as human is hardwired into our operating systems as human beings: 'During nearly 200,000 years in which Homo Sapiens have existed, anything that acted socially really was a person.'

The authors have 35 completed studies to support this proposition, and it carries an important message for those involved in producing e-learning content - in one sense reassuring, in another sense slightly more concerning.

Hearteningly, it means that there is no inherent reason why online learning experiences should be any less compelling - any less 'human' in feel - than what we experience in the classroom. As long as a media technology is consistent with social and physical rules, we will accept it.

But listen hard to that last part: 'as long as a media technology is consistent with social and physical rules'. If the media technology fails to conform to these human expectations - we will very much not accept it.

Our senses are at once highly gullible and highly attuned: gullible, in that we mistake the ventriloquist's dummy for a human personality - attuned in that they will soon stop supporting the illusion if the ventriloquist's timing is off or if for any trivial or mechanical reason - the dummy's jaw seizes up, for instance - he fails to make a decent fist of the illusion.

This has implications for bandwidth, infrastructure, usability and a host of other technical considerations which, clearly, cannot be detached from the question of content. The effectiveness of the user experience on an emotional level will depend as much on these technical considerations as on the scriptwriting, the graphic design, the casting of actors... It all has to work seamlessly, or the illusion of humanity fails.

Interestingly, the authors have found that *fidelity* of an image (i.e. the quality of a video picture, the number of dots per square inch, etc.) has little or no effect on this illusion of psychological realism. Imaginative buy-in has more to do with timing and what is actually said.

So the widespread assumption that more available broadband will automatically lead to more involving and engaging e-learning experiences might have to be rethought.

Perhaps the most surprising thing to come out of the book, however, is the role of politeness - which, it turns out, is hardwired into our systems too.

People are polite to computers.

The authors' studies show that when a computer asks a user questions about its own performance, the user will give more positive responses than when a different computer asks the same questions. People also respond to flattery from computers, and are hurt if they get negative feedback from computers. Go figure.

These are just a few of the fascinating insights in this extremely worthwhile book. It should be a must for anyone involved in producing e-learning content, or otherwise active in media production.

Just a word of warning however: do not expect after reading this volume that you will automatically be able to produce likeable, credible on-screen personalities. The authors have worked extensively with Microsoft, and one of the most glowing of the book jacket's testimonials comes from Bill Gates - the man who gave the world 'Clippy', the intensely irritating Office assistant who recently got his P45 after attracting sackloads of hate mail.

Donald Clark, 2002