Where We Came From | Humanity Online

In our experimental days of computer-rendered online personalities, circa 2003, a small team started creating rudimentary, two-dimensional characters designed to for use within the automotive industry. A few dealer organizations started using these cartoon-esc characters on their websites and in a relatively short amount of time we noticed an interesting occurrence - customers who visited these websites were interacting with, and developing a relationship with these characters. They were engaging and communicating with them much as they would a fellow human being.

Needless to say we were amazed by these interactions, and by the level of responses generated from the use of these characters.

We continued to ask ourselves “Why was this working? Why were people engaging with these non-human characters as they would with another person?” This behavioral discovery detonated a quest to learn more about behavioral, emotional, and social intelligence and the psychology behind how we, as humans, communicate.

Our research confirmed that humans possess a genetic pre-disposition, and are uniquely designed for face-to-face socialization. Our innate ability to pick up emotion from others allows us to process information faster from a human being than from any other environment source including electronically reproduced audio, emotional-less, or written text.

On an emotional level, people relate to a real person and a behaviorally and emotionally intelligent personality in a similar way. On a visceral level, we react to things that look and act like humans whether they’re human or not. Based on these findings, it was logical that people would naturally interact with realistic, multi-dimensional personalities on the Internet and within other electronic information sources.

This is the motivation of Humanity Online.