A couple of my colleagues have buffed up their Second Life avatars recently.
Connie Allen (Radiator Magic, top left) and Janet Clarey (Alpha Biddle, middle left) have designer skin and hair and cool clothes, giving them a striking, notice-me appearance.
(You can do the same at Avatar Island (SLurl), or lots of other places in Second Life.)
This got me thinking about the different ways that we represent ourselves online and in games.
O There’s your 3D avatar and pseudonym in Second Life.
O There’s your photo and real name in your profile in Facebook.
O And your photo and real name in Skype.
O E-mail and IM usually just have your name.
O Some web sites and discussion boards just use a username, like twerner.
This issue of online representation — how we represent our presence — is an interesting one.
And in particular the effect of our avatar’s appearance on both our virtual and real-life behavior. This is the sort of thing they study at Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab.
By the way, Linden Lab has added some new avatars to everyone’s Inventory in Second Life.
The boxbot (bottom left) is my avatar, Carston Courier . . . at least for the moment.
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Fascinating topic in the way one represent’s themselves. What I find in my time in Second Life (about 30 hours a week) is that after the initial meeting, the person’s avatar matters very little to me.
I was faced with an obvious female avatar who, in their profile, disclosed to being male. There was an initial “hmm”, but now there is none of that at all. Is it still in my mind, of course, but I would like to think that perhaps Second Life helps raise us above the gender biases we may have.
This person turns out to be a phenomenal scripter and great business associate, both traits which have nothing to do whatsoever with gender (imo).
The Grendel box robot is indeed extremely cute, and like many teenies, typically does not have a gender. As a teenie often, people do respond a bit differently to me than as a male avatar.
Nice post on an age old topic. Thanks!
Hi David. Yes, it’s a fascinating topic.
Some of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab research is quite interesting. For example, people whose avatars are taller and handsomer tend to act more confidently in the virtual world. If this transfers to the real world, this may have implications for using virtual worlds to teach communications skills or leadership skills.
Also, at least one person has mentioned to me that he identifies closely with his Nintendo Wii avatar because it responds so accurately to his movements, even though the Wii avatar is kind of odd-looking and not particularly an accurate human representation.
For example, female avatars tend to stand closer to one another and maintain eye contact than males do.
In a study at Michigan State University, interpersonal space within a Second Life was well studied and presented.
http://msu.edu/~lining2/docs/Second Life Group Project Final Presentation.ppt
David, thanks for the very interesting PowerPoint.
Actually, if I’m reading it right, it looks like their data show that male avatars allowed the experimenters’ female avatars closer (than female avatars did). (Slides 10 and 13.)
You are indeed correct and I posted in an obscure fashion. My reference was to a Stanford study and I think it was among groups of established residents.
It was published in the Journal of Cyberpsychology and Behavior. The only direct reference I find at the moment is an MSNBC article. However, now I am sidetracked by the journal itself (link below).
Who thought we would be discussing such issues just a few years ago?
http://www.liebertonline.com/cpb
Thanks, David. Interesting journal. It’s amazing what’s happening out there, and what’s being studied…