Effects of implied social presence and interaction on attention in a virtual setting.

Social interactions are crucial to successfully navigate daily life, and the presence of others can influence attention. With increases in online interactions, we investigated whether implied social presence (e.g., visual depiction of a fictitious player) and implied social interactions (e.g., instructing participants to cooperate or compete) affects attention in virtual settings. Participants completed a visual search task and were either told they were completing the task alone (controls) or they were cooperating/competing with another. Competition instructions led to faster but less accurate responses than cooperation instructions, however changing visual depictions did not affect performance. Compared to control conditions, participants prioritized accuracy during cooperation and speed during competition. Solo search for points led to significantly faster but less accurate performance compared to no points. Our findings suggest that there may be a low threshold to imply social presence, yet our beliefs regarding social interactions plays a role in affecting our attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]