Social Interaction in Blind People: An Experimental Analysis

Abstract

Although a considerable amount of research has been conducted on social interaction in blind people, two main weaknesses may be identified in the literature; very few of the reports have been based on controlled, experimental analyses, and little attempt has been made to relate the findings to social psychological theory. The purpose of the present paper is to try to redress the balance, and there are two main objectives: to offer a description of how blind people behave in conversations, and to use that description to reexamine our own model, the model of cuelessness. Ten blind-blind, ten blind-sighted, and ten sighted-sighted pairs were observed in a series of laboratory discussions, and measures were taken of the content of what was said, the style which was used, and the impressions the subjects formed of their partners and of their own behavior. Blind people, it emerged, behaved perfectly normally for the most part, and the pattern confirmed our model; the fewer the social cues the greater the psychological distance, and the greater the psychological distance the more task-oriented and depersonalized the content and, in turn, the less spontaneous the style and the less likely a favorable outcome.