Assignment 10 -- Not that interested...

Yee & Bailenson (2007) suggest that an individual’s behavior may conform to their digital self-presentation, independent of how they are perceived by others. This is referred to as the Proteus Effect, and they find support for this claim in conducting two studies. They first tested the effects of attractiveness, and found that participants with more attractive avatars walked closer to a confederate and exhibited higher degrees of self-disclosure than those with unattractive avatars in virtual reality. The confederate was blind to the attractiveness condition, eliminating the possible impact of behavioral confirmation. The second study tested the effects of height in a similar manner. The results suggested that participants with taller avatars negotiated more aggressively in a virtual environment.

I chose to enter the virtual environment Second Life. As “Kayla Gloster,” I chose from one of the initially offered avatars, and (for simplicity sake) stuck with it. Although all of the available choices were essentially attractive, I chose a female avatar I found to be particularly appealing (I chose female because I wanted to maintain my actual gender). The avatar was tall and thin, with short dark hair, dark eyes, and a cute, little red dress.

Contrary to Yee and Bailenson’s Proteus Effect, I do not think the appearance of my avatar influenced my behavior in Second Life at all. Perhaps it is difficult to be self-aware of such effects, but I think the lack of conformity to my digital self-representation was related more to my lack of experience with any sort of virtual world previously. This was, in fact, my first time playing a game in which one takes on a virtual presence as an avatar. I don’t play video games, computer games, or any sort of interactive online games either – mostly because I don’t find them to be enjoyable. Thus, the main influencing factor in my virtual experience was my lack of experience. I found it very difficult to relate to an avatar in any way – let alone consider it a self-representation. Accordingly, my behavior probably would have been just as disinterested, and shamelessly newbie-like regardless of the appearance of my avatar. In fact, I didn’t even make it off “Help Island,” and I had no reservations walking close to other avatars because it didn’t seem real to me. Perhaps reading about the Proteus Effect beforehand influenced my self-observations in some ways too.

I believe the Proteus effect is a valid theory, and that the evidence offered by Yee and Bailenson’s studies substantiates their claims, but I also think the context of my experience negated this effect.


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