"When we cloak ourselves in avatars, it subtly alters the manner in which we behave," says Bailenson. Bailenson has found that even 90 seconds spent chatting it up with avatars is enough to elicit behavioral changes offline at least in the short term. What's more, Bailenson's research suggests that the qualities you acquire online whether it's confidence or insecurity can spill over and change your conduct in the real world, often without your awareness. With my plain=Jane avatar and my inexperience in Second Life, I did what most people would want to do in an uncomfortable social situation: run away. What is a surprise is that this applies in the virtual world too. No surprise that what we think about ourselves affects the confidence with which we approach the world. Jeremy Bailenson, head of the lab and an assistant professor of communication at Stanford, studies the way self-perception affects behavior. I didn't realize how instructive my sister's question was until recently, when I discovered research being done at Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL). I was desperately searching for the teleport tool when my sister walked into the room, peered over my shoulder at the computer screen and said, "Why'd you make your avatar ugly?" I logged off. When I finally made it onto Money Island to mingle, a stranger approached me and said, "Hello there, Devon." I froze. Follow a year ago in my first visit to Second Life, the popular online virtual world, I spent half an hour trying to make my avatar, or online character, look like a hotter version of myself which isn't easy when you don't know how to use the tools.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |