Yes. Someone ACTUALLY asked me that.
As I entered the "Skin, Clothes, and Appearance" room in Second Life, I began to notice lots of naked people surrounding my avatar, Riley Kazyanenko. While I started to feel a little uncomfortable, I slowly realized that I had teleported to the room in which people not only change their appearances but also go to have a little exotic fun. Once I knew what was going on and had played around with my surroundings for a little while, I felt comfortable approaching people. The first avatar that I approached was a man. We started to chat, going over some small talk regarding how we were doing and how long we have been familiar with Second Life. This male character started asking me questions and one of them was about "where he could get some skin?" Of course, I at once thought that he was looking for someone to have cyber-sex with, and so I responded as if I was offended that he would ask such a question. However, I quickly learned that he simply wanted to take off his shirt in order to get a tan, so he wanted to be directed to where he could take his shirt off. Now, this seems innocent enough, but when I told him how to alter his appearance, I was met with the response, "are you trying to have sex with me?". I was shocked! All I did was answer his question! So I said no, and sort of yelled at his avatar for assuming that I was asking for sex.
This is the moment when I realized how different my avatar was from my actual self. One look at my avatar and I can understand why he wondered about my motives. Dressed in acid-washed skin tight jeans with the crack of my behind sticking out for the world to see and a belly shirt accentuating my cleavage, Riley Kazyanenko looked like she just stepped out of a dance club. And this man's inquiry did not make her stop! Soon, we teleported to the Dance Life Suite and met lots of avatars that enjoyed dancing just as much as Riley did. She was not afraid to get out on the dancefloor and go after anyone within twenty feet of her. In this sense, it is clear that the Proteus Effect took place because while I love to dance, Riley was accentuating her attractiveness to the fullest degree! Although I chose my avatar, I picked her features quite randomly, and Riley ended up using her attractiveness to get closer with strange men throughout the entire simulation. Regardless of whether or not Riley sought out the attention of men, her mere appearance made her seem "available" and "approachable" to men. As a result, Riley became a more confident avatar and by the end of our simulation, she was approaching strangers with the assumption that they would automatically be attracted to her sexually enticing character. Behavioral confirmation plays a large role here as Yee and Bailenson describe because other avatar's perceptions of Riley made her in fact behave in those preconceived ways, thus confirming the perceiver's expectations.
In terms of how my avatar affected how I behaved online, I do not believe that Riley's behavior was in any way an expression of my own personality. I was completely aware of what Riley was doing the entire time during the simulation, and I simply reacted to how others perceived her. My control over Riley definitely exhibited the fact that I was having fun with Second Life, a tool that I have never used before and was extremely intrigued by. Its complexities were incredible, and I was simply having a good time taking it all in. With that said, I do understand how the Proteus Effect takes place because I did feel Being a first time user of Second Life, whom will probably never use it again, I was in complete control over what my avatar did, sometimes purposely making her seem more promiscuous because of her appearance. My only problem with the simulation that I performed is that I cannot determine whether I made Riley act in a more sexually explicit way because of the way she looked or whether I unknowningly developed my avatar in a way that was created by how the other avatars perceived her.
http://comm245blue.blogspot.com/2007/11/assignment-10-not-my-second-life.html
http://comm245blue.blogspot.com/2007/11/shawty-is-10.html
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2 comments:
Hey Jamie,
I found your post very interesting, especially because I shared a similar awkward experience in the Second Life game. Instead of being asked if I wanted to have sex with someone, however, I walked in on a couple of avatars having sex. Surprisingly, it was almost as awkward as walking in on two people in real life. I immediately turned my avatar away pretended not to notice as I walked by. It was certainly a strange experience!
It was very interesting how your behavior with your avatar was not completely different from your true behavior, but an accentuated version of it. I especially liked your analogy to your real life desire to dance and your avatars accentuation of her attractiveness while dancing. You did a great job of connecting this behavior to Yee and Bailenson’s theories, such as the Proteus Effect. Great job!
-Ian
Great post! I, too, entered Second Life as an attractive female avatar and found your analysis to be very similar to my own. Considering the “get some skin” request – I was highly amused. Would it truly matter to this guy even if you were “trying to have sex” with him on Second Life? These are AVATARS, people! This isn’t real! I think the extent to which some people take their game playing might be a bit extreme. While he may have been prompted by your promiscuous appearance, I’d say he also may have been a bit of a pervert.
Nice explanation of the proteus effect with your avatar going wild because she knew she was attractive. My own experience was similar in a way – as an attractive female, I was very comfortable approaching the other avatars to ask questions as I had a feeling they would be helpful. While I’m familiar with the real life implications and studied benefits of being attractive, I’m intrigued by the idea of attractiveness gaining you more success in the online medium. Because, really, if we all know this phenomenon exists, why isn’t Second Life an online realm of hotties?
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