10. I look ridiculous

For better or worse, I became very familiar with Second Life last semester. Three other people and I conducted a study on the effects in-group/out-group dynamics had on communication. Because of this I still had access to four different avatars that we used during the study. Two of the avatars are humans, and two of them are anthropomorphic fox-like creatures, also referred to as furries. I chose to use one furries. The avatar I chose was very similar to the default furry you can chose when you first enter Second Life pictured below:



Trying to determine where a furry would fit into Yee & Bailenson's theory is sort of a difficult task. While furries are generally pretty tall, it's hard to consider them intimidating because they look tremendously cartoonish. From the Proteus Effect perspective, it's hard to imagine a person acting both dominant and childish at the same time.

With that in mind, I had serious doubts about observing the Proteus Effect at all. Mainly because this "mini-experiment" involved no blinds. The premise seemed flawed in a lot of ways: I am observing myself to see if I exhibit an effect that I am already aware of. The level of self-awareness would appear to undermine the task. But because my grade was involved, I pressed onwards.

Even though I had used Second Life a fair amount and was familiar with the controls, I decided to go to Orientation Island, the area of Second Life that acts like a tutorial for beginners. I was taught how to fly, use vehicles, and even got to adjust my appearance in that little castle all over again. My interactions with others were relatively brief as most of the other beginners were either struggling with the controls or exhibiting low attention spans. One person (another furry) I was talking to actually flew off mid-conversation. Whether this was by accident or boredom, I will never know. My only other interesting interaction was when I showed someone else how to teleport (if you're friends with someone you can instantly go from wherever you are to wherever they are). Overall my experience was pretty unexciting. Staying on Orientation Island generally ensures a tame experience.

Trying to apply Yee & Bailenson's lens to my experience was a little difficult because of the reasons I'd mentioned before. I didn't really find much of my behavior to be the result of the avatar I chose. I don't think I acted more playful or outgoing than if I had been a human avatar, but maybe it was because I knew, in advance, the effect I was looking for. After a lot of thought, the one element of my behavior that I DO attribute to the Proteus Effect is my decision to go to Orientation Island. Despite the fact that I'm familiar with Second Life, I chose to take my default avatar back to the tutorial. As the avatar had no personalization at all it was clearly the avatar of newbie, I think this fact pushed me to act like more of a newbie, specifically going back to Orientation Island. Had I been a more personalized avatar I probably would have explored other portions of the map.

As I was actually one of the participants in the Merola, Penas, & Hancock (2006) study which was cited by Yee & Bailenson and helped to establish the Proteus effect, I definitely think a person's avatar has an effect on their behavior. However, I thought this method of self-observation was a difficult way to detect it.