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46 Socially Intelligent AgentsAttitudes: A good teacher indicates pride in the student through face andgesture (Lester et. al); a friendly nod indicates not just acceptance of anoffer for coffee but enthusiasm toward that offer (Clark).Nonverbal cues can include gestures made with the hands and head, expressionsmade with the face, posture, proximity, eye contact, as well as tone,volume, style, and duration of speech.Nonverbal cues are routinely manipulated in human-human conversation toachieve certain goals, some admirable, some less so (Lester et. al point out theeffectiveness of nonverbal cues in pedagogy; Cialdini notes that sales trainingoften includes imitation of one’s customer’s body language, which increasesthat person’s feeling of similarity to the salesperson, and thus likelihood ofbeing convinced to buy).1.2 Use of Nonverbal Social Cues in Interface AgentsThere is experimental evidence confirming that people will also read nonverbalcues in agents, and that these nonverbal cues can in fact influence attitudetoward the agent, as well as the level of behavioral influence the agent may haveon the person (Isbister and Nass). Some examples of agents using nonverbalcues include:Deictic (content supporting) gestures in a virtual real estate agent (Bickmoreand Cassell)Deictic and emotional gestures and facial expressions in a pedagogicalagent (Lester et. al)Deictic, eye gaze, and turn-taking gestures in an agent meant to teachtasks within a shared virtual context (Rickel and Johnson).Focus in these projects has been on the support of a one-on-one interactionwith the agent.1.3 Using Nonverbal Social Cues in Designing InterfaceAgents to Support Human-Human CommunicationAgents with the ability to facilitate and enhance human-human social interactioncould, for example, help to make connections between people withcommonalities they do not yet know about, or guide group discovery and learning,among other potential applications.In group settings, nonverbal cues are just as crucial as they are in one-on- oneconversational settings. The same sorts of strategies apply, with some additionaltactics related to group situations. For example, people use nonverbal cues toindicate when they are giving up or beginning a turn in a conversation (Clark), towelcome newcomers or ward off people who may be attempting to join a private