Digital Avatars...

Birth of a Digital Salesman: For some time, psychologists have known that people come across as more likable when they mirror the body language of the person they're speaking with. Now a team of researchers has discovered that the same holds true for computer-generated characters. The researchers, from Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, sat 69 students in front of digital avatars delivering a sales pitch. All of the avatars gesticulated like real humans, but half of them mimicked the students' own motions -- and students, the study found, considered the mimics to be more friendly and persuasive than the other avatars. (Wired News)