We are understandably eager to believe that sensors can objectively measure our highly subjective emotional experiences and teach us about ourselves. But like horoscopes, sociometers and other sensor technologies offer just enough vaguely specific information to seem plausible, and like good astrologers, the technologists who translate that informa

If emotions use our bodies as their theater, as Antonio Damasio puts it, what happens when that theater becomes virtual? As the late Stanford University psychologist Clifford Nass found, spending a lot of time in mediated environments undermines our ability to read others’ emotions.

Persuasive technologists also want to create “electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence and mood of people.”