#10: Looking tough gives you the confidence to be tough

Virtual environments afford the opportunity for players to be whoever they want; female, male, tall, short, pretty, ugly, animal, or human. Yee & Bailenson’s (2007) article discussed their study of the Proteus Effect and how it influenced social interaction in online games. The Proteus Effect explains how an individual’s behavior conforms to their digital self-representation regardless of how others perceive them. This “digital self-representation” is commonly recognized as an avatar, which usually a player can alter and create however they wish. Once a person creates their new self-identity, the Proteus Effect states that the user will “conform to the expectations and stereotypes of the identity of their avatar.” When reading the article I initially thought this was a bit ridiculous, and was skeptical as to how a virtual character could make that much of a difference. However, for this assignment I chose to play Second Life and saw that the effect does in fact often prove to be true.
I have never played a virtual space game before, and it took me a while to get adjusted to Second Life. Once entering the environment, I was put in a circular middle section with different doorways around it leading to different areas. Example of how these different areas were labeled is “appearance” and “communication.” I entered the “appearance” place first because I wanted to change my outfit. Once I entered I had difficulty figuring out how to alter my appearance and I started talking to other players. I was friendly and polite so that they would be willing to help me. The only shirt I could figure out how to change into was a shirt called a “chained shirt.” Once I was wearing it I felt like I looked like an apprentice from the Middle Ages who was learning how to be a knight. I left the building and decided it was time to start interacting with other players and making virtual friends.
I went into an area that was meant to look like a deserted city. There were signs that said “rat crossing” and pretty soon I noticed that there were a lot of rats hanging out in the middle of the street. I felt really alone at first because as I walked around all I saw were deserted cars and desolate buildings. After a few minutes, however, I found a deserted segway and thought it would be really cool to try and ride it. As soon as I walked closer another player came over and I began a conversation by asking if he could help me. He said yes and I started asking how I could change my appearance and if he knew how to drive the machine. He didn’t answer and instead started walking away. Thinking it was a mistake and the person didn’t know how to work the game yet, I started following him, and then the character started running! I ran after him and chased him down three streets. When I was finally close enough I started typing in an angry way saying “HEY! I thought you were going to help me!” I was no longer as polite and friendly as I was to other characters at the beginning. I thought it was pretty funny that I ran after him and spoke so aggressively to him, which is something I would not usually expect myself to do. I began to wonder if it was because I associated my outfit as something a tough knight would wear. Could it be that this “warrior” avatar of mine had encouraged me to act tougher and force someone to stick to their word of agreeing to help me? I hadn’t foreseen myself being unfriendly toward any of the other characters or feeling the need to stand up for myself; after all, once the other player had walked away I could have walked around and found someone else to talk too. As it turns out, the other player then told me he didn’t speak English, so I ended up just walking away and talking to someone else.
I am certain the Proteus Effect can be used to explain my behavior. With other avatars I spoke with I was also very commanding and spoke in a demanding way. I wanted people to answer me and respect me. I originally entered the game thinking I was going to be friendly, polite, and make new friends, but once I changed my clothes and talked to more people I was a lot more aggressive. Yee and Bailenson described how “avatars have a significant impact on how we behave online. Users…may adhere to a new identity that is inferred from their avatars.” Since my clothes made me feel like I was a rough, forceful person, it impacted how I interacted with other characters. I stopped using polite words such as “thank you and please” and even stopped using hedges, which are common for females to use. Just as the article describes someone may become friendlier in an attractive avatar, I became more insistent in my questions and requests of other players. I demanded that they tell me what they had been doing in the game so far and what I was supposed to be doing. I stopped saying hi and asking how people were and instead just started to forcefully speak with them. According to Yee and Bailenson, how players who were taller were more confident when speaking with others. I think this same fact held true for me because my clothes gave me the confidence to act a certain way. Had I been dressed as a princess I may have felt the need to be polite, friendly and subservient to other players. It would be interesting to do this assignment a second time with the rule that everyone has to be the opposite gender. It would be interesting to see how this appearance change affects our behavior too.

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