BEHIND THE RELATORBOT AI
This article examines the social sciences behind the RelatorBot, an artificial intelligence used in the Whosthere social media platform to help facilitate communication between individuals of different cultural backgrounds. The RelatorBot puts into practice and builds upon several communication and cultural theories created by anthropologists and cultural behaviorists as a foundation to measure the communication styles of the platform’s users. The measurement forms the basis of each user’s cultural communication, behavior, and thinking styles. It is used as a point of comparison for the measurements of other users, thus illustrating the cultural differences between any two users. Moreover, the AI offers the unique feature of measuring the flexibility of each user’s cultural dimensions to illustrate how easy or hard it is for that user to accommodate the cultural communication, behavior, and thinking of other users. The goal of the RelatorBot is to help its users to become aware of their cultural differences, and through the suggestions it provides, allow them to take action to improve their cross-cultural communication and interaction with others.
Keywords: cultural differences, artificial intelligence, social media, cross-cultural communication, culture, communication
One of the unique features of the Whosthere social media app is the RelatorBot. The RelatorBot is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) designed to facilitate and improve communication amongst individuals of different cultures within the Whosthere social media platform.
When activated, the user will take a series of short questionnaires that measure six different cultural dimensions to create their personalized cultural profiles in the Whosthere social media platform. The complete results of an individual user’s cultural dimension profile are private by default but can be made public should the user decide to do so. Users will only be able to see the relative differences between their cultural dimensions and those of a different user, in posts made by that particular user in the Whosthere platform, if both users have the RelatorBot activated. The relative difference between the two users represents their cultural differences or, in other words, the gap between their placement on the cultural planes. Then, the RelatorBot will not only make suggestions to improve their communication, but will also help interpret what other users say, do, and think based on their cultural profiles and their cultural differences.
In total, the RelatorBot uses six different cultural dimensions. Two dimensions form the Cultural Communication Plane, which is composed by the dimensions of Context and Feedback [1-5]; the second plane is called the Cultural Behavior Plane, comprised of two more dimensions, the Confrontation and Emotional display [5-8]; the third and final plane is composed of the Understanding and the Thinking-Approach dimensions, which together form the Cultural Forma Mentis Plane [9-10].
To help illustrate the cultural planes and how they can be used to improve communication, we will use two hypothetical RelatorBot and Whosthere users, Buddy and Romeo, throughout the remainder of this paper. Figure 1 and Figure 2 illustrate their cultural dimensions after completing the RelatorBot questionnaires. It is important to keep in mind that the dimensions and planes are relative. For the purpose of this examination, we are not interested in static, absolute results of their users’ RelatorBot questionnaires but rather comparing the distances between any two points on the cultural dimension scales, and the directionality of those points (who desires to communicate with whom). In our example of Buddy and Romeo, the scales and planes are viewed from the perspective of Buddy who wants to communicate with Romeo.
Figure 1. Buddy's Culture Dimension Scores on the Whosthere App
Figure 2. Romeo's Cultural Dimension Scores on the Whosthere App
Overall, the RelatorBot AI is designed to help people communicate via social media more effectively. Each plane, and their cultural dimensions, corresponds with a specific personal communication function: the Cultural Communication Plane helps users communicate (or “speak”) more effectively; the Cultural Behavior Plane helps users to interpret their actions (or “do”); and the Cultural Forma Mentis Plane helps users understand why they think as they do. Users will obtain a greater awareness and insight into their usage of these three planes of saying, doing, and thinking, which help them take action to improve their cross-cultural communication with others, thus reducing the potential for conflict, creating more trust and solidarity between different cultural groups.
Before further examining the RelatorBot, and its role and importance to aiding cross-cultural communication, it is necessary to explain each of the six cultural dimensions the AI uses. We will begin with the two cultural dimensions of the Cultural Communication Plane, Context and Feedback.
The first cultural dimension and the X-axis of the Cultural Communication Plane is Context and refers to whether or not a particular culture requires high- or low-context to be understood. A culture is low-context if what is considered good communication is clear and simple. There is no need for listeners to “read between the lines” and consider other factors such as body language, hierarchical structures, social group harmony, etc. High-context cultures are the exact opposite. Communication in these groups has multiple layers of nuance that the listener must interpret correctly to grasp the full and intended meaning of the speaker. Messages are often expressed more softly. For example, a low-context comment would be “I don’t like that.” versus a high-context comment which might sound something like, “That may not be exactly what I had in mind…” [1-2].
The Feedback scale is the second cultural dimension and forms the Y-axis of the Cultural Communication Plane. The Feedback scale measures how different cultures prefer to give and receive feedback: directly or indirectly.
For cultures preferring direct feedback we can see that negative feedback, for example, is given in a straightforward and honest manner, it is not softened by positive messages and may be given in front of a group. Whereas indirect negative feedback is expressed more subtly, often softened by positive messages, and usually given privately [3-5].
It should be noted direct feedback is not necessarily preferred by low-context cultures. On the contrary, in some low-contest cultures (for example in the United States) negative feedback is always conveyed in a very indirect way.
Using our examples of Buddy and Romeo (Figure 3), we can see the Cultural Communication Plane taking shape. One immediately notices that Buddy and Romeo fall on complete opposites of the plane. Romeo is in upper left-hand quadrant (low context and direct feedback), while Buddy is in lower right-hand quadrant (high context and indirect feedback) of the scale. Cultures in the same quadrant as Romeo value direct communication and direct negative feedback. This communication style varies greatly from those cultures in Buddy’s quadrant where negative feedback is expressed softer. Simply on the basis of this plane alone, we can see that Buddy and Romeo could potentially have misunderstandings based on their relative placements on the Cultural Communication Plane.
Figure 3. The Cultural Communication Plane of Buddy and Romeo
The next plane is the Cultural Behavior Plane, using the scale of Confrontations mapped with Emotional Display. As the name suggests, the former scale measures how a culture manages open disagreements by either seeking or avoiding confrontations.
Seeking confrontation does not mean that cultures in this group are overly aggressive or “looking for a fight” so to speak, but rather open disagreements and debate are seen as important aspects for reaching a shared understanding and personal growth. These disagreements and the opinions shared will not have a negative impact on any group dynamics or relationships. In contrast, the opposite is true for cultures that avoid confrontation. Disagreements and debate will have a negative impact on the group, potentially destabilizing a group’s dynamic, but they could also be detrimental to interpersonal relationships [5-6].
The Confrontation scale is paired with Emotional Display to complete the Y-axis of the plane. How each person displays their emotions and feelings is also matter of culture. In some cultures it is natural to display openly grief for example, while in others it is true the exact opposite. The same can be said for enthusiasm on good news to give another example. In some cultures it would be rude to glow for a success in front of others while in others cultures it would be matter of pride. This scale measures how much one tends to show or hide emotions. Although it must be said that this particular dimension may be biased by the personal character of each individual, its result is still very meaningful in the scope of the RelatorBot.
The literature justifies this pairing because of the natural alignment of a culture’s openness to express emotions with the same openness to express opinions [7-8]. This, however, should not be the most important factor when deciding where to place any culture on the Confrontation scale. The focus should be on whether an open disagreement will have a negative impact on the relationship.
Figure 4. The Cultural Behavior Plane of Buddy and Romeo
Returning to our hypothetical RelatorBot users, Buddy and Romeo, we see that they express their emotions and manage confrontation very differently (Figure 4). Buddy is much more emotionally expressive and has a tendency to engage in confrontations and encourage debates, while Romeo is the opposite. He prefers to hide his emotions and avoid confrontation. Their relative placement on the scale means that Buddy expresses disagreement and emotions openly with little fear of damaging relationships from his perspective, but Romeo will show his emotions more subtly and disagreements will be expressed gently, if at all. Romeo may perceive any open disagreement as a threat to the relationship and as a result it may have a negative effect on their communication.
The final two cultural dimensions used in the RelatorBot form, what we call the Cultural Forma Mentis Plane, are comprised of the Understanding scale and Thinking Approach, i.e. holistic or specific thought-processes employed by ancient and modern cultures respectively. Holistic and specific thought-processes are so entwined with the way members of ancient and modern cultures think, that it is impossible to separate them. This is why they are mapped with the Understanding scale. The Cultural Forma Mentis Plane represents the different ways of thinking that are determined by one’s culture.
The Understanding scale forms the X-axis of the Cultural Forma Mentis Plane, and places two styles of reasoning, theoretical and practical approaches, at opposite ends of the scale.
Individuals from cultures that prefer a theoretical approach have been taught to develop an initial theory before giving a fact, statement, or opinion. They tend to rely on more theoretical arguments before drawing conclusions. They place great value on the theoretical background provided. Whereas individuals with a practical approach, have been taught to begin with a statement, fact or opinion and provide supplemental evidence to support or discredit that initial statement, fact, or opinion. Theoretical agreements tend to be avoided since they can’t be supported or discredited using supplemental evidence. In this way, discussions tend to be more practical and based on tangible evidence [9-10].
Holistic and specific thought approaches complete the Y-axis of the Cultural Forma Mentis Plane. Modern cultures have the tendency to have an inductive approach to life. They are inclined to start from a detailed observation to eventually generalize and find a general rule by which the universe is governed. They apply rigorous logic and cause-effect principle to many aspects of their lives. Ancient cultures have more likely a holistic approach to thinking. They tend to apply a deductive thinking approach making general broad observations of the universe used to deduce rules that can be applied to specific cases. In simpler terms, individuals from modern cultures have a tendency to focus on individual matters separated from their broader context, while members of ancient cultures prefer to view the matter in its entire context [9-10].
Figure 5. The Cultural Forma Mentis Plane of Buddy and Romeo
Figure 5 shows the Cultural Forma Mentis Plane of Buddy and Romeo. We see that Romeo slightly favors practice-oriented understanding and has a slightly more holistic thought-process, while Buddy prefers a more theoretical understanding and a specific thought-process. The proximity of both Buddy and Romeo on this plane suggests that it could be relatively easy for them to relate to each other. Helping people relate to each other is a unique feature of the RelatorBot.
The RelatorBot AI will not only measure one’s cultural dimensions, but it also measures how flexible one can be within each dimension. Indeed, the questionnaires will identify how flexible the user’s culture is on the different dimensions. Things that are a part of an individual’s core often include their behavior, values, beliefs, or other aspects of their culture or personality that are essential to their sense of self and are fixed or unchanging. The more rigid one is with their core, the more others tend to trust them [11-12]. Flex refers to everything else that is not part of the core and includes aspects of one’s personality or thinking that an individual is more open to changing. The more flexible an individual’s flex is, the more people tend to trust them [11-12].
From our examples of Buddy and Romeo in Figure 6, we see the flexibility of both users and their areas of overlap on the plane. Both Buddy and Romeo exhibit some flexibility in their understanding and thinking approaches that allows them to stretch their thinking to more readily include, accept, or appreciate the thought process of the other.
The RelatorBot will measure a user’s flexibility for all of the cultural dimensions and make suggestions to help the users say, do, and think more effectively. The inclusion of the feature is to show just how hard, or easy, it may be for either side to reach the other according to their levels of flexibility. For example, with regards to Buddy and Romeo, Buddy has a higher degree of flexibility than Romeo, for him relating to Romeo will be an easier job. Romeo has a lower degree of flexibility, and this will have to be taken into account by Buddy when he makes an effort to understand the way Romeo thinks (Figure 6). The RelatorBot will take this information into consideration when suggesting Buddy how to talk to Romeo and how to interpret the way he behaves and why he thinks what he thinks.
In the end the job of the RelatorBot is at the very least to make Buddy aware of the differences (sometimes big ones) existing between him and Romeo. It will make both parties also aware of their level of flexibility. This alone should already suffice to allow for less confusion, when the two talk to each other.
The RelatorBot has been designed to give people on the Whosthere platform the chance to see how we all are different and at the same time how we all are similar in their “being human”.
Figure 6. Areas of Flexibility of Buddy and Romeo on the Cultural Forma Mentis Plane
The RelatorBot offers users of the Whosthere App a powerful tool to help facilitate communication between people of culturally diverse groups. The results of the RelatorBot, do more than serve as a powerful visual representation of one’s own cultural profile, they also provide the building blocks to help interpret the words, behavior, and thought processes of others on social media.
Awareness of cultural differences is a crucial step towards building trust and relating with someone who is culturally different. By facilitating communication and building relationships between groups of different cultural backgrounds, the RelatorBot gives users of the Whosthere App the opportunity to become aware of their cultural differences and provides suggestions to help them take action to mitigate those differences, and minimize (or possibly avoid all together) misunderstandings that could potentially lead to conflict. The ultimate goal of the RelatorBot is to help everyone using the Whosthere App to better relate to each other by making them aware of their cultural differences and to eventually facilitate the expansion of their culture. If we are able to better relate to one another and to expand our culture, we will reach the level of inclusivity we need to start feeling like one single people on the planet.
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All personal information collected through the Whosthere platform and the RelatorBot is private and anonymized. It will never be sold to third parties or used for any other purpose besides academic anthropological research. All data can be deleted from the platform at any given moment in time, partially or completely. The RelatorBot is not a professional help or communication counsellor, its use is limited to the social media application called Whosthere and cannot be used for professional purposes in and out of the platform.
The RelatorBot was designed with the goal to improve communication and strengthen connections between people, however, should it fail its mission, it cannot be held responsible in any legal court for that, in any respect and scenarios, not only limited to those given as example here in this text. Lastly, the hosting platform Whosthere App, cannot be held responsible for any potential failure of the RelatorBot and any material or immaterial damaged directly or indirectly caused by its use or misuse.
The use of this technology is at the sole risk of the user.