How do Leaders Perceive Stress and Followership from Nonverbal Behaviors Displayed by Virtual Followers?

Managing a medical team in emergency situations requires not only technical but also non-technical skills. Leaders must train to manage different types of subordinates, and how these subordinates will respond to orders and stressful events. Before designing virtual training environments for these leaders, it is necessary to understand how leaders perceive the nonverbal behaviors of virtual characters playing the role of subordinates. In this article, we describe a study we conducted to explore how leaders categorize virtual subordinates from the non-verbal expressions they display (i.e., facial expressions, torso orientation, gaze direction). We analyze how these multimodal behaviors impact the perception of follower style (proactive vs. passive, insubordination), interpersonal attitudes (dominance vs. submission) and stress. Our results suggest that leaders categorize virtual subordinates via nonverbal behaviors that are also perceived as signs of stress and interpersonal attitudes.