West Chair Research

Research supported by the West Chair centers on one question: what makes it possible for people to trust each other, and how is that capacity changing?

Trust and social capital

Generalized trust, or faith in the average person, is the raw material of civic life. Chair research examines where that willingness comes from, and how communication either builds or depletes it.

Communication competence

Trust also depends on skill. This work develops and tests measures of interpersonal, intercultural, and computer-mediated communication competence. It asks how those capacities transfer across contexts.

Technology and relationships

Current projects examine how people use artificial intelligence for companionship and emotional support, and whether these usages replace or supplement interpersonal relationships.

Games as intergroup contact

Experimental work testing whether role-playing games, in which participants take the perspective of a member of another group, can reduce prejudice and increase empathy in ways that extend beyond the game itself.

Selected publications

Bouchillon, B. C. (2022). Competence, presence, trust, and hyperpersonal-ness: Dissolving the boundary between digital and physical life. Lexington Books.

Bouchillon, B. C. (2026). Learning to trust immigrants: Testing a game-based experiential role-playing intervention in the United States. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 23, Article e101210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2026.101210

Bouchillon, B. C. (2026). Role-playing as immigrants for learning to trust: Constructing a theory of experiential contact. Social Science Computer Review.

Bouchillon, B. C. (2026). Group texting and subjective well-being: Age and CMC competence shape the emotional and cognitive benefits. Telematics and Informatics, 105, Article e102375.

Bouchillon, B. C. (2025). Anything but politics: Connectedness in networked social groups for addressing prejudice. Social Science Computer Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251320059

Bouchillon, B. C. (2024). The changing importance of competence generationally: Developing trust, online and off. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies.

Bouchillon, B. C., & Stewart, P. A. (2023). Computer games, trust, and immediacy: Role-playing as immigrants in the South. Computers in Human Behavior, 140, Article 107571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107571

Bouchillon, B. C., & Stewart, P. A. (2020). Games-based trust: Role-playing the administrative experience of immigrants. New Media & Society, 23(3), 479–496. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819900557

Bouchillon, B. C. (2014). Social ties and generalized trust, online and in person: Contact or conflict — the mediating role of bonding social capital in America. Social Science Computer Review, 32(4), 506–523. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439313513076