I chose to play in the virtual world Second Life for this assignment. Second Life is a 3D virtual environment where players can interact, socialize, and participate in group activities. When I registered for an account, I was asked to pick a name and avatar to represent myself in the metaverse. I selected the male “nightclub” avatar. Once in-game I proceeded to fine-tune my appearance such that I appeared taller and huskier, with black hair and clothes. (Second Life has HUGE set of options for configuring your character’s appearance down to the finest detail, by the way. This is the greatest level of avatar configurability I’ve ever seen.) I was going for a confident, “don’t-mess-with-me” type of look – perhaps to the point of being intimidating. Never mind that in real life I look nothing like this (well, except for the black hair).
It was fairly easy for me to socialize with various people in the vicinity, and I would say at least part of this ease can be attributed to the outward appearance of my character. Being a “nightclub” guy meant it wouldn’t look at all unusual if I were a total chatterbox looking for someone to talk to. This observation agrees with the findings by Yee & Bailenson. Specifically, I have exhibited the Proteus effect – behaving in a manner which reinforces how I appear to others. However, many times I initiated conversation by asking newbie questions about the game (how to pick up a torch, where can I find this in my inventory, how I can I find events, etc). This basically meant that I was on the receiving end of a lot of help and information. Consequently I was not in a position to exhibit any sort of overly confident behavior that my avatar’s appearance would suggest. This aspect of my behavior contrasts with the theory set forth by Yee & Bailenson. The Proteus effect considers only your digital self-representation, not how others perceive you based on that representation. Based on that hypothesis, I should behave confidently no matter what I am doing. However, in this case situational forces have taken precedence in my online self-presentation.
My avatar was fairly attractive looking, which leads to two predictions about my behavior from the Yee & Baileson paper. First, I would be more likely to walk closer to individuals I socialized with (close interpersonal distance). This was definitely true; I often went right in front of people when I was talking to them. It was not a distance that would be socially comfortable in real life. Second, the paper predicted I would have exhibited higher self-discloser. This was not actually the case for me because I specifically intended on remaining anonymous. Thus I was keen on keeping discussion to various aspects of the game and random small talk. Lastly, the height of my avatar would lead Yee and Baileson to predict that I would behave in a more confident manner. As described above, situational forces precluded this behavior from occurring.
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Dear Will,
I found your post to be particularly engaging in light of the fact that your experience did not completely reaffirm the ideas expressed in the Yee and Baileson article. I think that you bring up an interesting point when you talked about how the paper predicted that since your avatar was fairly attractive, you would be more inclined to self-disclose. I feel like to some degree that the intent of the user has a greater affect on whether or not such disclosure will occur. For instance, you mentioned how you desired to remain anonymous. Thus, despite how attractive your avatar was, you entered the game with a certain mindset, which consequently affected your degree of play.
I really enjoyed reading your blog!
I found it interesting how the article we read for this assignment by Yee and Bailenson did and did not agree with your experience in the online gaming world. I think that being a “newbie” at the game totally throws in a curve ball. It was probably hard for you to be this manly-man all while having to ask help from the people around you. Did it help you in asking for help knowing that you were an attractive “nightclub” character? I wonder how you would have felt if you had picked the least attractive character. Would people have treated you differently and not been as helpful?
Interesting that you did in fact walk closer to others when talking based on the attractiveness of your avatar, even to the extent that you wouldn't be comfortable interacting at these distances in real life. Also interesting that you didn't have higher self-disclosure because of your anonymity. Great observation on how the contextual forces prevented you from exhibiting more self-confidence.
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