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Often designers of DSS and other computer systems do not attend to questions of the impact of the screen design on the use of the technology well enough. Studies have shown that some factors heighten emotional response while others calm it. In fact, the literature, taken as a whole, suggests that individuals' interactions with computers and other communication technologies are fundamentally social and natural. One of the current projects of the Social Responses to Communication Technology Consortium is an examination of the effect of the size of the image of a human displayed on a computer for teleconferencing upon individuals' responses to that image. Stanford Professor Byron Reeves was quoted as saying that "many cultures around the world assign magical properties to people who are small.... These small people grant wishes, they monitor behavior and they keep people safe. But they also can punish or be bad just for the hell of it." Professor Clifford Nass further elaborates in that same article, "We want to know, when you see a small face on a screen, do you respond to it as if it were magical? Is it perceived as powerful or capable?"* So, the question is, do you have a different response to the two screens below?
*Morkes, J., "The Leprechaun Effect," Wired, Volume 2.01, January, 1994, p. 28.
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