Video-mediated communication (VMC) tools such as Zoom are rapidly being adopted in distance education, telehealth, and for job-related purposes like meetings and interviews. However, how interactions may differ between VMC and face-to-face (FTF) communication is not yet fully understood. In particular, much of the existing literature has explicitly focused on how VMC affects interdependent communication exchange (active) rather than mere observation (passive), and what research does exist on passive observation has focused on recorded (asynchronous) VMC rather than live (synchronous) interactions. Using a mock interview paradigm, we directly compared differences in perceptions of a job applicant between ostensibly synchronous VMC passive and FTF passive participants. VMC passive participants rated the job applicant as less likeable, less hirable, and as having less agency than did FTF passive participants. These large effects (> 1 SD) were partially mediated by lower self-reported attention for VMC participants. These results are discussed in terms of their basic and applied implications for VMC and perceptions of others.

诸如Zoom之类的视频媒体通信（VMC）工具正在远程教育，远程医疗以及与工作相关的目的（例如会议和面试）中迅速被采用。但是，尚未完全了解VMC与面对面（FTF）通信之间的交互方式如何。特别是，现有的许多文献都明确地关注了VMC如何影响相互依赖的通信交换（主动），而不是单纯的观察（被动），关于被动观察的确存在的研究重点是记录的（异步）VMC，而不是实时的（同步）。 ）的互动。使用模拟面试范例，我们直接比较了表面上同步的VMC被动参与者和FTF被动参与者之间对求职者的看法的差异。VMC被动参与者对求职者的评价为：不太喜欢，更少雇用，与FTF被动参与者相比，其代理人少。这些较大的影响（> 1 SD）部分由VMC参与者自我报告的注意力降低引起。讨论了这些结果对VMC的基本和应用含义以及对他人的看法。