Many pieces of psychological literature have shown that being attractive will have a major influence on who you are and how you act. This draws another question, however, which is what affect will the appearances of your avatar have on your online behavior? This is the question that Nick Yee and Jeremy Bailenson looked at in their paper, The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior. In this paper, Yee and Bailenson found that the appearance of your avatar does have major affects on how you behave online.
At the beginning of their paper, Yee and Bailenson present a theory, known as the Proteus effect. This theory, essentially, states that our avatars will have a significant affect on how we behave online, and also states that we will conform to our individual identity cues. In order to test this theory, I decided to enter an online gaming space that uses avatars. The game that I decided on is the much acclaimed World Of Warcraft, or WOW, which I thought would be highly appropriate for this assignment for a number of different reasons. First, in WOW avatars play a major role in identifying oneself, allowing you to choose a number of different races and classes, many of which carry certain connotations with them. Additionally, as your character levels up you have the opportunity to collect armor, weapons, and spells that will distinguish you from lower level characters. Finally, I feel that WOW is an excellent space in which to study the Proteus effect because it eliminates the possibility of confusing the Proteus effect with behavioral confirmation. Since the characters in the game are generally not human, you do not need to be concerned about an attractive avatar being played by a player that considers themselves to be attractive, thus allowing you to know that the Proteus effect is occurring independently from the behavioral confirmation effect.
When I first entered WOW, I decided to play as a number of different characters. Fortunately, having access to my brother’s account, I had access to characters of different levels and races. The first character that I decided to play as was a Blood Elf hunter, named Shimake. From what I know about Blood Elves, they are generally a harsher race, one that is cold and ambitious. Incidentally, as I continued to play as Shimake I found myself, somewhat to my surprise, acting curter, straighter forward, and more condescendingly with other characters. This affect on my behavior, as a result of my avatar, is exactly what is predicted by the Proteus effect. Next, I decided to experiment with a different race, the Gnomes. When I first logged in as my new Gnome, I noticed an immediate change in the way that I perceived my role in WOW. I found that I started behaving in a way that was more comical, light hearted, and friendly, features which correspond to those traditionally attributed to the Gnome race. Once again, this change in my online behavior can be attributed to the Proteus effect.
Finally, I decided to test one more aspect of the Proteus effect: that of attractiveness. WOW players do not define attractiveness in terms of physical appearance, but rather, in terms of level and equipment. I found that while playing as my brother’s level 70, the highest attainable level, Warlock, that I was far more comfortable in taking a leadership role. I also found that I was more aggressive in my negotiations with other characters, and, overall, far more confident than I had been playing as a level 16 hunter. The reason for this is simple: my avatar was more attractive. This is another point that the Proteus effect addresses, and another point where my personal experience perfectly reflects the predictions made by the Proteus effect.
In the end, I found that the Proteus effect held very true in the online game, World of Warcraft. My behavior was directly influenced by the appearances of my avatar, as predicted by Yee and Bailenson in their paper. This shows that physical appearance is not only important in the real world, but also important in the virtual world. Fortunately, our appearance in the virtual world is completely within our control, allowing us to be as attractive, or unattractive, as we desire.
4 comments:
I have never played WOW, and it was interesting to learn about the game. It was also intersting that you stated a difference in the definition of attractiveness. Here appearance or cues are taken from different sources. Instead of visual cues, status is based on actual ability-- in this case levels.
I wonder if your change in behavior was from your own established stereotypes of the avatar, or if people were actually interacting with you differently -- such as with the new Gnome. It seems obvious that with a higher level, users would interact with you differently as well.
Good post. It was refreshing to read about a space that I did not venture into.
I have never played any computer virtual games before we had to for this assignment and I chose to enter Second Life. I find it really interesting that in World Of Warcraft players do not define attractiveness in terms of physical appearance, but in terms of level and equipment. You talked about when playing that role you were more comfortable in taking a leadership role, more aggressive in my negotiations with other characters, and more confident. In addition to the reason that your avatar was “more attractive,” do you think you behaved this way because of how people treated you? Did other people give in more in negotiations and let you take on the leadership role more easily because of your higher status? Did your confidence level increase because the other players were more submissive to your avatar? I think it is also interesting to look at how others’ behavior affects our own.
Hey Tim,
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who didn't pick Second Life for this assignment. World of Warcraft is definitely a good choice for an interactive online game with numerous participants, especially since it has a good avatar selection too.
Your experience playing WOW definitely supports the Proteus Effect, especially since your behavior and communication altered with each different avatar you chose. Are you relatively experienced gamer? Because I played a similar game, and for me, I was too concerned with my inexperience and getting used to the game to truly relate to my avatar and then change my behavior along with it.
It's smart to judge attractiveness of an avatar in a nontypical way, especially with a game like this where physical beauty doesn't always mean attractiveness. I would agree with your assessment, on how the more skilled and powerful your avatar is, the more attractive it is too.
I liked your take on WOW. I have played it a few times in the past, and thought about doing so for this assignment. However, besides the different look of races, I felt there was little way to customize your look and make yourself more or less attractive since the faces and hair choices are limited. I really liked how you defined attractiveness in WOW being with weapons and gear, now that I think of it, it is definitely true!
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