Abstract

This paper discusses whether the knowledge of the driving mode of an approaching vehicle (manual vs. automated) influences pedestrians’ decisions while crossing a street. Additionally, the paper explores how different appearances and driving behaviours of vehicles interact with driving mode in affecting pedestrians’ road-crossing behaviours. In a video-based experiment with sixty participants, two vehicles with different appearances (a BMW 3 and a Renault Twizy) were presented as either manually-driven or automated vehicles. Both vehicles displayed either yielding or non-yielding behaviour on a straight road devoid of other traffic. Participants were asked to indicate whether they would cross the street in front of the approaching vehicle, at different distances ranging from 45 m to 1.5 m. The results showed that there was no significant influence of the knowledge of the driving mode (manually-driven vs automated) on pedestrians’ willingness to cross the street at any distance. The vehicle’s behaviour (whether it is maintaining speed or yielding) played a dominant role in pedestrians’ decision to cross a road, and this was similar for both modes and both vehicles, at all distances. However, results suggested that in situations and at distances when the intent of the vehicle was not fully clear by the behaviour of the car alone, there were differences between the two vehicles at certain distances, which could be attributed to the differences in their appearance such as size, aggressiveness and novelty. A futuristic-looking vehicle inspired less confidence in road-crossing situations compared to an ordinary-looking vehicle. Additionally, a novel and futuristic-looking vehicle appeared to make it easier for people to believe that it is an automated vehicle. We conclude by discussing design implications for the development of external HMIs automated vehicles.

Abstract

When a speaker engages in public speaking, the expression shown while delivering the speech determines the effectiveness of the communication and can be very influential in organizational settings. However, in public speaking, the audience can often see the speaker before the presentation begins. Therefore, the public could hypothetically gain an impression on the basis of the speakers’ expressions even before performing the presentation. With this idea in mind, the goal of this research is to analyze the influence of speakers’ expressions before delivering a speech and during the presentation. The study included two brown-haired/dark-eyed male and female and two blonde-haired/blue-eyed male and female presenters to investigate the effect of appearance and gender. A total of 200 participants looked at the speakers’ pictures with five different expressions before delivering the speech. They then watched videos with the same speakers and similar expressions while delivering the speech. The results showed that happiness was the most pleasant and positive expression, followed by confidence, indifference, shyness, and anger, when the participants watched the speakers before the presentation. However, confidence was considered the most pleasant, credible, and comprehensible expression, followed by happiness, anger, shyness, and indifference, while giving the speech. In both cases, female presenters were perceived as the most pleasant, and brown-haired/dark-eyed speakers were considered the most pleasant, credible, and comprehensible. The speakers’ expressions were perceived as more intense before the speech than during the discourse. This line of research helps understand the influence of these two crucial moments in presentations, and the results may be transferred into practice for public speaking training.