What is it like to be blonde 6'5" 34-18-34? Unless you are a living My Size Barbie, Second Life is probably the easiest way to try it out. Starting out with the "Girl Next Door" template I eventually transformed her into the "Girl Next Door if you are Hugh Hefner's neighbor". Let me introduce you to Princess Supermarine. Armed with my supermodel physique, playmate of the year face, and pornstar name, I strutted onto the Second Life catwalk.
I quickly realized that my avatar was tall (almost absurdly so). The first person I talked to asked me what happened to my legs; I guess leggy blonde can be overdone. After spending so much time on my physical appearance, I had a strange urge to be constantly reminded of my self-perceived good looks. "Do you think I'm hot?" was a question posed a surprising number of times looking back. If I was insecure of my online avatar, I don't want to even think about what it is like to be a girl.
I found that though I was very willing to approach opposite-gendered strangers, I was not friendlier with a more attractive avatar; in fact it turned out that I was more arrogant due to confidence. I also was not afraid of walking up close to strangers as long as they were male avatars. One interesting thing was that I was complimented on my shirt which could be linked to my physical appearance and probably led to behavioral confirmation. This strongly supports the first and third hypothesis of the Yee and Bailenson study which stated that taller avatars would behave in a more confident manner and negotiate more aggressively. Whether this was due to the Proteus effect or behavioral confirmation was unclear because it was hard to get results in an individual setting. Another strange phenomenon was that I did not want to interact with female avatars for fear of being judged. I did not feel that I was willing to self disclose more based on my avatar. Others also did not seem to self-disclose more than expected. I think a reason for this may be because people automatically assume that I was nothing like my avatar and that I was a fraud. My experiment may have been less accurate because it was taken to the extreme.
The Yee and Bailenson paper states that in many of the online spaces, graphical avatars are attractive, youthful and generally idealized appearances. If virtual online worlds become a large time consuming portion of our life, will this lead to a higher standard of physical appearances offline and negatively affect our society? Maybe life isn’t so fantastic when it is plastic.
Comments
http://comm245green.blogspot.com/2007/11/10-my-second-and-so-not-accurate.html
http://comm245green.blogspot.com/2007/11/10-bringing-fugly-to-another-level.html
I found that though I was very willing to approach opposite-gendered strangers, I was not friendlier with a more attractive avatar; in fact it turned out that I was more arrogant due to confidence. I also was not afraid of walking up close to strangers as long as they were male avatars. One interesting thing was that I was complimented on my shirt which could be linked to my physical appearance and probably led to behavioral confirmation. This strongly supports the first and third hypothesis of the Yee and Bailenson study which stated that taller avatars would behave in a more confident manner and negotiate more aggressively. Whether this was due to the Proteus effect or behavioral confirmation was unclear because it was hard to get results in an individual setting. Another strange phenomenon was that I did not want to interact with female avatars for fear of being judged. I did not feel that I was willing to self disclose more based on my avatar. Others also did not seem to self-disclose more than expected. I think a reason for this may be because people automatically assume that I was nothing like my avatar and that I was a fraud. My experiment may have been less accurate because it was taken to the extreme.
The Yee and Bailenson paper states that in many of the online spaces, graphical avatars are attractive, youthful and generally idealized appearances. If virtual online worlds become a large time consuming portion of our life, will this lead to a higher standard of physical appearances offline and negatively affect our society? Maybe life isn’t so fantastic when it is plastic.
Comments
http://comm245green.blogspot.com/2007/11/10-my-second-and-so-not-accurate.html
http://comm245green.blogspot.com/2007/11/10-bringing-fugly-to-another-level.html
6 comments:
Hey Austin great post…or should I say titillating. I always knew you would look great as a blonde bombshell. Does your innate desire to be a monstrous blonde woman in your second chance at life hold any insight or additional meaning into you as a person…who is the real Austin Lin, and does he really just want to be a girl. I guess all of these questions will be answered in due time. Nonetheless, great post, as always. I liked the questions you posed at the end. Conversely, the Yee and Bailenson paper mentioned that perhaps being attractive in these CVEs and more confident may carry over and translate into real world interactions. This is a more optimistic and still interesting question researchers should look at.
Hi Austin, I'm surprised your avatar could walk with her odd dimensions. :) Like you pointed out, your avatar experience was aligned with Yee and Bailenson's assertion that with greater height, came greater confidence. I was interested in your choice of names for your avatar. Princess Supermarine? I found in my second life experience that several avatars were named lady something or other or prince something, king, etc. I wonder how these names have a reflection on the avatar user's personality. Does a royal title make an avatar more outgoing? Just a thought, maybe Yee and Bailenson can cover that next time.
Let me first answer your question: Yes I do think your hot. Your avatar is a good example of the ideal female physique and looks that is very popular in todays society. She is absurdly tall and her dimensions are unique, to say the least. Your experience went along with Yee and Bailenson’s hypothesis about being taller and confidence. You went right up to others and spoke with them without any hesitation. You also wanted constant reminders of how hot you were as Princess Submarine, an interesting name I might add. I agree with your thought about idealized appearances with the avatars, society today is becoming more and more focused on looks.
Funny post...but now I have the Barbie Girl song stuck in my head. I agree that your results seem to conform to Yee and Bailenson's paper. I guess maybe it is true that the more attractive you are, the more extroverted/confident you become. Also, you made an interesting finding when you pointed out that more attractive people may seem friendlier and more extroverted because they need constant reassurace from other people.
I totally agree with your assessment. In our particular example it's really difficult to tell if any of the effects we exhibited were because of the proteus effect or because of behavioral confirmation. Our online example is so different from the Yee & Bailenson study that it's hard to draw any conclusion from their comparative outcomes. I think it's interesting that you think your avatar affect your decision making, in some respect, especially the "do you think i look hot" question. Anyway, nice avatar-- I enjoyed your post and am looking forward to seeing you dj tomorrow.
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