Modeling Nonverbal Behavior of a Virtual Counselor during Intimate Self-disclosure

Abstract

Humans often share personal information with others in order to create social connections. Sharing personal information is especially important in counseling interactions [2]. Research studying the relationship between intimate self-disclosure and human behavior critically informs the development of virtual agents that create rapport with human interaction partners. One significant example of this application is using virtual agents as counselors in psychotherapeutic situations. The capability of expressing different intimacy levels is key to a successful virtual counselor to reciprocally induce disclosure in clients. Nonverbal behavior is considered critical for indicating intimacy [1] and is important when designing a social virtual agent such as a counselor. One key research question is how to properly express intimate self-disclosure. In this study, our main goal is to find what types of interviewees’ nonverbal behavior is associated with different intimacy levels of verbal self-disclosure. Thus, we investigated humans’ nonverbal behavior associated to self-disclosure during interview setting (with intimate topics).