BBC and virtual worlds

.....picked up from BBC today. I guess it is official about Cory.......A very real future for virtual worlds
Second Life has long been seen as the bell-wether for the growing interest in virtual spaces. Here, founder Philip Rosedale talks to the BBC News website about the past and future of the parallel world he is helping to create.

These are interesting times for Second Life. In the four short years it has existed, it has seen media coverage go from hysterical to hectoring. It has been hailed as both a harbinger of the next big thing and a brake on the burgeoning development of virtual worlds.

Speculation about its future has intensified as news emerged that chief technology officer Cory Ondrejka, who helped design and build Second Life, has left the company.

But said Philip Rosedale, one of the founders of Linden Lab which oversees the running of Second Life, the departure will not dent the vision all the original engineers had for their creation.

"Cory is a fantastic guy, he's fantastically capable and we will miss him a lot," said Mr Rosedale.


Philip Rosedale and his Second Life avatar Philip Linden
"Our differences are more about how to run the company and how best we organise ourselves as a company going forward," he said. "We really do not have any differences in strategic direction."

"There's not a shift in direction in the company that I wanted to make or Cory wanted to make that was incompatible," he told the BBC News website.

"We are a core of technologists in our heart," he said. "The first 10 people that joined, there are only two that have left, they are all engineers."

For the near future, Linden Lab is looking at ways of making the technology behind Second Life much more open and easy to use.

Web worlds

"We are still in the early days so the things that are wrong are still wrong," he said, "It is still hard to figure out how to use Second Life and how to find things."

In many respects, he said, online virtual worlds are at the point now that the web reached in the early 1990s.

"We have often had fun in the office finding quotes from the early 90s that map exactly to what they say about Second Life now, " he said, "that it's disorganised, you cannot find anything and there is a lot of crap."


Despite the scepticism from many quarters he is fervently convinced that virtual worlds are the future of online life.

"Virtual worlds are inherently comprehensible to us in a way that the web is not," said Mr Rosedale. "They look like the world we already know and take advantage of our ability to remember and organise."

"Information is presented there in a way that matches our memories and experiences," he said. "Your and my ability to remember the words we use and the information we talk about is much higher if it's presented as a room or space around us."

Equally important, he said, was the visibility or presence that being in a virtual world bestows on its users.

By contrast, he said, when visiting a website people are anonymous and invisible.

Shopping on Amazon might be much easier and enjoyable if you could turn to one of the other 10,000 or so people on the site at the same time as you and ask about what they were buying, get recommendations and swap good or bad experiences.


Many firms are using Second Life to collaborate
Many firms and educators were starting to use Second Life as an online collaboration space that helps them work together like they do in the real world but to which is added the malleability of a wholly digital space.

For virtual worlds to be able to extend this usefulness to the mass of people a lot of work has yet to be done, said Mr Rosedale.

What it might take, he said, was software that would let people browse virtual worlds like they do webpages. Built in to that software would be an identity management system that re-drew yourself to match those different spaces.

"I think it is going to happen, that kind of portability of identity is important but I could not hazard a guess right now about how quickly it will happen," he said.

"But," he said, "with a sufficiently open platform then people will move into it quite rapidly."

It might, he speculated, one day outstrip the web as a means for people to communicate and work together.

"Because virtual worlds like Second Life do not impose language barriers like the web does - that almost certainly means their ultimate utility range is larger," he said. "We are at the very early stages of something very big."

Pick-pockets, Phone-calls and sex ed?

Hail, second lifers!!
Your Intrepid librarian has been combing the web looking for new and tasty tid-bits to pass along and she thinks she may have a few to share.
First I would like to report that the new windlight viewer is absolutly stunning and I spent the first three nights on my roof just watching the sun rise and fall. So if you haven't seen it yet by all means go download it!!

Second Life Residents To Get Calls From The Real World
Avatars will be able to sign up for phone numbers and get phone calls from the physical plane -- one of a series of new voice and chat upgrades planned for the virtual world.

By Mitch Wagner
InformationWeek
December 7, 2007 09:20 AM


Linden Lab is working on upgrades for voice communications in Second Life, including the ability for avatars in-world to receive phone calls from people in the real world, as well as Linux support and moderator controls.


Linden Lab is also working on a standalone desktop client for chat.


In the first quarter of 2008, users in Second Life will be able to get real-world phone numbers assigned to their avatars, and receive calls from real-world phones, said Joe Miller, vice president, platform & technology development for Linden Lab. Users will be able to get voicemail, which can be e-mailed to the user or listened to when in-world........(read more)

click.......Herbert....you on that second life again?.......well we need you down at the office......I had a feeling that call in sick thing was fake.....

Academic to host sex ed class on Second Life

Anthea Lipsett
Thursday December 6, 2007
EducationGuardian.co.uk


A senior Salford University academic is to venture on to the social networking site Second Life to bring sex education to teenagers online.
The move follows Tuesday's Youth Parliament report that criticised the poor quality of sex education being given to teenagers in UK schools.

Barbara Hastings-Asatourian, a senior nursing lecturer at Salford and managing director of Contraception Education, will host the first live seminar on sexual health on Second Life next week.....(read more)

Virtual Learning, Inworld Support and Kool New Water!!

The virtual university
SAN JOSE STATE JOINS INTERNET-BASED WORLD OF SECOND LIFE
By Kara Andrade


One day Professor Jeremy Kemp entered his classroom and found himself next to a student dressed as a gigantic monarch butterfly.

But Kemp was not startled in the least that one of his students had sprouted wings. Since he started teaching at the virtual campus of San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science, students have also appeared as robots and giant bowls of Jell-O.

"I am looking at representations that they create, and that's just as valid as real life," said Kemp, assistant director of the virtual campus, which opened in May. "I have a sense of being there and being with the person."

San Jose State is one of a skyrocketing number of colleges and universities across the country to make the leap into the virtual frontier using Second Life, the Internet-based world created by Linden Lab of San Francisco.......(read more)

"Next fall, Main said, the department is going to make it a requirement for students to include a Second Life component."

Awesome!! As ususal Second life is growing around us by leaps and bounds

Transgender Day Of Remembrance Observed in SL
by Penny Sautereau

Every year thousands of innocent people are murdered around the world for their beliefs, for who they are. Hatred kills people every day somewhere. Muslims are murdered for being Muslims. Jews for being jewish. Gays and lesbians for being gay and lesbian.



Every year a few hundred of those are Transgendered people, and of those only a handful get reported or noticed. Transsexuals, crossdressers, hermaphrodites. To the haters it doesn't matter. You're different, and to them that's enough. The transgender umbrella holds a lot of different kinds of people under it, but to those who murder them, they all have one thing in common; They blur gender lines in ways that make many people uncomfortable. In the last 12 months alone, 17 TG murders have been reported in North America and Europe. Imagine how many weren't........(read more)

YYYAAYYY GWEN!!!! Its great work you all do!! although I have been personally guilty of some rather non-groupish behavior just last night I was proud of our group as they rallied and stood behind a member with a greifer/stalker problem. So don't tell the girls and guys I said so but KUDOS to them all and to you too Gwen....love ya baby!!

WindLight First Look Viewer update!Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 5:07 PM PST by: Pastrami Linden
Download It Here!!!
Hello all! As a last minute treat before Thanksgiving (also known as Thursday and Friday to the rest of the world :)), we’ve managed to get in an update to the newly released WindLight First Look!

Issues fixed in this release (r74061):


Torley.....You are sooooo kool!!! I fall in love every time i see ya!! Love those eyes!!!
OK........peace and Turkey to all from RPI second life!!! Use your flight feathers to stay above the drama and I'll see Y'all in world!!

/me scampers off to download windlight with fingers crossed it will run for hir!!

Tolerant

Zoe Hana writes.....

"I have been a child avi for over a year now, and i am REALLY REALLY glad that LL have put their foot down about those who are not appropriate with this. For one, because of those people, I am discriminated against. Thats like me saying all adult avis are having sex… thats just not true lol.

What i would like to see next, is the side of having a child avi on sl, that is innocent. Normal semi realistic families. I would really like some light shed on that side. So People can see not all of us are pervs, or pedos. In fact when i run into someone who has wrong things on their mind and choose to share them with me, they are reported and muted within seconds and banned from my land. We all know about the side thats wrong.

And I have to disagree with the person who said ageplay has to do with submission…. lol ask anyone that knows me, i am FAR from submissive. And most of my child avi friends are far from submissive as well.

LL knows us innocent ones are out there, which is why they are not ridding sl of us, and for that i am grateful. Thanks for everything LL!"

......and this is why I must learn to be tolerant. Thank you Zoe.

Clarification......of one issue.

Today Linden labs posted a Clarification of Policy Disallowing “Ageplay”

I hate child avatars.
I don't even need to see them engaged in questionable behavior to hate them.

That makes me pause to think a moment.
That makes me intolerant.
I am, and freely admit I am intolerant to child avatars.

as an experiment.....if you haven't already.....type these words into your second life search engine.....
Rape
Murder
Kill
Blood

I have seen tables soaked in blood to strap victims on.....white aprons covered in blood for that uber real serial killer look. knives.....hatchets.....you name it.
I hate these things too.
These are the evil elements of our society following us into our virtual world.
But then who decides what is evil and what isn't.....
And can we really define evil.....put a label on it and ban it as well.
If me and 'Avatar A' go to my payed for sim and have go at the pose balls I feel its my business and my right.
If I tie 'Avatar A' to the bed, with consent mind you......I still feel I am within my rights.
If 'Avatar A" is a furry does that mean i dabble in bestiality?
When 'Avatar A" discovers I am not a biological female will there be a "second life beareu of gender authenticity" to report me to?

lets face it...
yes .....second life is an incredible teaching platform that can change the way we learn on a global and unprecedented scale.
yes....second life stands to change the way we do business and shop online in that same global capacity.
But what has hooked the vast majority of us is the social aspect we experience. The people we meet.....fall in love with.....have sex with.
We are pioneers in a new frontier.
There are no laws to govern this new frontier. Like the wild west of the 1800s we learn and make the rules as we go along.
Who decides what is acceptable and what is not in this new world?

It is us....the pioneers.

It must fall to us to decide what is wrong and what is right.
which fetishes (and intolerances to fetishes) we allow to follow us into that frontier.

Kudos To the Lindens for attempting to tackle this emotionally charged issue.
They do their part in trying to clear the ethics of this new world.
Its up to us to be tolerant and strong on our convictions and our neighbors.

The future of our second lives demands it.

Second life Ethics and Ideologies..........

Ren Reynolds writes.......
Do virtual worlds liberate us?

"Lastly when we look at something like Second Life and There what we seem to see are endlessly reproduced norms of body type etc that look like the products of an internalisation and then self production of dominant types. While there are many ‘fake’ versions of brands, they are still versions of brands so still operate in the same world of assumed values. What’s more we can no longer gamble in Second Life the reason being because of US laws – hence many virtual worlds seem simply to act as a way of expanding US cultural and legal norms, even if the virtual world is not in-fact based in the US as it will probably have a tendency to norm towards its values. As virtual worlds come out of China I expect that we will see a spreading of its cultural assumptions too.

eeeeeeeesh....dominant ideologies being re-enforced by online virtual worlds. Well I certainly hope not. I rather see second life as a meeting ground for people from all over the world and the mixing of different ideologies moving toward a more globalized culture. But the point is taken that second life is American based....and I can see how that makes second life appear to be a capitalist construct. And if you are seeking out those malls and money mills in world then yes that is what you are going to find. I suggest visiting the beautiful dragon sims or some of the lavish gardens to see it can also reflect a place of exploration and quiet meditation.
I found this wonderful list for all you SL Casanovas out there.I suggest taking a look guys....please. And Kudos Lash....awesome post!

At the Reuters site I found these little gems.
Study finds sex, gambling not major Second Life drawsThu Nov 8, 2007 1:11pm PST
By Eric Reuters

If there’s no “goal” to Second Life, no monsters to kill or experience points to collect, why do so many people log on and spend so much time there? Everyone has their theories, but a new academic study suggests cybersex and gambling are less of a lure than is often assumed........(read more)

I've often thought that what was more important was the fact of meeting new people and sharing thoughts and feelings. Nice to hear some one went and documented it. I always tell the newbies i get at the library..."Its not in the pose balls....the magic is in the chat window" (as a close freind often said)"and when the novalty wears off in a month come back so we can have a real discussion."
Not that a good pose ball isnt a wonderful thing......;P


UK to investigate pedophilia in virtual worlds
Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:10am PDT
By Eric Reuters

British cops will be going undercover in Second Life to investigate depictions of adult-child sex and track down pedophiles, according to a report by Channel Five News set to air on Tuesday.

But the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) said Second Life isn’t being specifically targeted. “Our interest is wherever on the Internet children are,” a spokeswoman told Reuters. “We place officers into a number of virtual worlds.”

The spokeswoman confirmed the agency has “covert investigational ability” and is aware of Second Life.......(read more)


I said a year ago child Avs should go......but surrounding this issue they also mention BDSM parlors which cater to "sick" people with torture fantasies. So it makes me wonder when they will Try and close those as well. Or how about the transgender sims......I'm guessing this will eventually fall into the "need to be eradicated" category too.
And this opens up a serious ethical debate. concerning consenting adults and online behaviour......and where we draw the lines between what is acceptable and what isnt.
I strongly have felt child avatars should just simply be banned. But I have heard the point...(from a linden, no less)...that some people who can not have children, benefit from this online experience. But my inner "ethics needle" spins like a compass out of control when i see one.
Every day some kid in middle America warms up his PlayStation or Xbox and goes into a "virtual" experience where, just for example, he will steal cars...shoot at police...and burn down city blocks (remember vice city?). And for every one of these kids there is someone who says we should not allow them the chance to even do this even in a virtual world as it will only entice them into real life violence. That debate is still bouncing around out there but I think this may fall under the same ethical blanket.
Now I am no perfect little avatar myself.....and will readily concede my second life is about 75-80% fantasy driven.......yes I am a biological male in real life.....but meeting in world You will soon discover I am anything but male. And I hold dear my "little piece of heaven" where I can interact and be accepted as I am.
But I completely abore violence and abuse against children. It makes my blood boil as well.........and I would be the first one in line to oust them from SL.
My only fear is when do the "moral majority" find what I do online as sick and offensive and come to oust me as well.
So where is the line between what is acceptable and what isn't? We need to clearly define it.

CSI:NY and Second Life

Your intrepid reporter was on hand last night as Csi:NY aired its long anticipated episode featuring second life. Well, to be honest I was actually puttering about the library when certain groups sent Im warnings about the expected in world flux of new people from the CSI and CBS websites. So i opened up my search engine and looked for in world events related to this.......and found none. I did find a CSI sim though and was quickly off to see if there would be any action to cover for you, my devoted readers....or reader.Sure enough there was a small crowd already gathered and it did increase as the show carried on. We all watched in rapt attention as the world we all know and love was portrayed as something of a halo fighting game. I was especially sad when they killed the furry! The poor white rabbit!
But we all joked and thought it was ok as long as interest in SL would be generated. Of course some boredom ensued and me and a few others began exploring this tiny Csi sim. Before too long we found what appeared to be a body on the third floor.....well.....it actually was a sex doll......and yes....some us took turns humping it.......just for posterity's sake.Remember its ranny talking here, and humping a sex doll in front of a large crowd is right up my alley. After the show we all waited for this "flood" of new members with sharpened teeth and rapt attention. It began to dawn on us that this was not the area they were pouring into. Luckily a fine gentleman named Luke located the place we were supposed to be. We all gleefully teleported expecting throngs of fascinated newbies bent on roman fighting and advanced weapon warfare...both of which CSI dramatically played up with theatrical abandon. What we found was yet another empty sim where the audio didn't work. But this was obviously the touted "crime scene" so we began to explore earnestly. And behold, we did actually locate some new people who had joined cold from the Csi web site platform. I found their newbie skins much better than the ones us geezers had to choose from but i swallowed my jealous nature and made friends quickly.So all in all it was a good night for your under-paid reporter as she was able to actually show a few of these sleuths the real nature of second life and its true inherent beauty, you know...the part they left out on the TV program. About a grand meta-verse created entirely by its users and all. Now don't get me wrong, after much discussion last evening I do believe it was good for second life in the long run. So kudos to linden labs and CBS for having the xcites to do this. .....The only thing I say?.....up against the world series....sheesh......but then again all the beer drinking trolls were over there instead of realising the possibilities that await them online in our beautiful world.....so its ok.But again i have to shriek......THEY KILLED THE FURRY.......KLINGON BASTARDS!!

The Proteus Effect

Ok....I happened to have an interesting article on hand dealing with avatars in online environments that I been trying to pass along and having some trouble sending in e mail but I figure its worth reproducing here for all of us to read and ponder.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The Proteus Effect: The Effect of
Transformed Self-Representation
on Behavior
Nick Yee & Jeremy Bailenson
Department of Communication, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
Virtual environments, such as online games and web-based chat rooms, increasingly
allow us to alter our digital self-representations dramatically and easily. But as we
change our self-representations, do our self-representations change our behavior in turn?
In 2 experimental studies, we explore the hypothesis that an individual’s behavior conforms
to their digital self-representation independent of how others perceive them—
a process we term the Proteus Effect. In the first study, participants assigned to more
attractive avatars in immersive virtual environments were more intimate with confederates
in a self-disclosure and interpersonal distance task than participants assigned to
less attractive avatars. In our second study, participants assigned taller avatars behaved
more confidently in a negotiation task than participants assigned shorter avatars. We
discuss the implications of the Proteus Effect with regards to social interactions in
online environments.
doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00299.x
The notion of transforming our appearances permeates our culture. On the one
hand, minor alterations such as haircuts, makeup, and dressing up are seen as socially
acceptable, if not socially desirable. On the other hand, the ability to truly transform
oneself has been regarded in myths and legends as both dangerous and powerful.
Consider, for example, werewolves and vampires fromEurope, the kitsune (foxes that
can take on human form) from Japan, the God Loki from Norse mythology, and the
God Proteus from Greek mythology. The Greek God Proteus is notable for being
the origin of the adjective ‘‘protean’’—the ability to take on many different selfrepresentations.
And although extreme self-transformations are expensive (e.g., cosmetic
surgery) or difficult to perform (e.g., gender reassignment surgery) on our physical
bodies, nowhere is self-representation more flexible and easy to transform than in
virtual environments where users can choose or customize their own avatars—digital
representations of themselves. For example, the documentation for the online
Corresponding author: Nick Yee; e-mail: nyee@stanford.edu
This article was accepted under the editorship of James Dillard.
Human Communication Research ISSN 0360-3989
Human Communication Research 33 (2007) 271–290 ª 2007 International Communication Association 271
social world Second Life notes that ‘‘using over 150 unique sliders, they can change
everything from their foot size to their eye color to the cut of their shirt’’ (Linden
Labs, 2006). In other words, the mutability of our self-representations in online environments
is a fundamental aspect of what it means to have a virtual identity
(Turkle, 1995).
Even though the plasticity of our self-representations is an important part of our
online identities, the quantitative research in computer-mediated communication
(CMC) has tended to focus instead on the impact of technical affordances on
social interaction in online environments. For example, it has been argued that
lack of social presence (Hiltz, Johnson, & Turoff, 1986; Short, Williams, & Christie,
1976) or the lack of social cues (Culnan & Markus, 1987; Kiesler, Siegel, & McGuire,
1984) creates an impoverished social environment, whereas others have shown that
relationships develop slower in CMC but are not impoverished in the long
term (Walther, 1996; Walther, Anderson, & Park, 1994). Other research has
looked at how the narrow communication channels in CMC impacts impression
formation (Hancock & Dunham, 2001; Jacobson, 1999; Trevino & Webster, 1992;
Walther, Slovacek, & Tidwell, 2001). And although there has been research on selfrepresentation
in online environments, the focus has been on the impact of anonymity
and authenticity (Anonymous, 1998; Flanagin, Tiyaamornwong, O’Connor, &
Seibold, 2002; Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1998; Postmes & Spears, 2002)—in other words,
the gap between the real and virtual self and how that difference changes social interactions.
In the current work, we were instead interested in exploring how our avatars
change how we behave online. As we change our self-representations, do our selfrepresentations
change our behaviors in turn? As we choose or create our avatars
online and use them in a social context, how might our new self-representations
change how we interact with others? Thus, we were interested in the impact of our
actual self-representations on our behaviors in virtual environments rather than
the effects of anonymity or authenticity.
Behavioral confirmation
There is good reason to believe that our avatars change how we interact with others.
Behavioral confirmation offers one potential pathway for this change. Behavioral
confirmation is the process whereby the expectations of one person (typically
referred to as the perceiver) cause another person (typically referred to as the target)
to behave in ways that confirm the perceiver’s expectations (Snyder, Tanke, &
Berscheid, 1977). In the seminal study by Snyder et al. (1977), male and female
undergraduate students interacted over a telephone. Male perceivers who believed
that a female target was attractive caused her to behave in a more charming and
friendly manner regardless of how attractive the target actually was. Thus, in an
online environment, a perceiver interacting with a target who is using an attractive
avatar may cause the target to behave in a more friendly and charming manner.
In fact, the study by Snyder et al. itself occurred in a mediated context (i.e., over the
telephone). It is important to note that the source of behavioral change from the
The Proteus Effect N. Yee & J. Bailenson
272 Human Communication Research 33 (2007) 271–290 ª 2007 International Communication Association
effects of behavioral confirmation stem from the perceiver rather than the target. It is
the perceiver’s behavior that in turn causes a change in the target’s behavior.
Self-perception theory and deindividuation theory
Behavioral confirmation provides one potential pathway for avatars to change how
a person behaves online, but might our avatars change how we behave independent
of how others perceive us? When given an attractive avatar, does a user become more
friendly and sociable regardless of how others interact with them? Another line of
research suggests a potential explanation for why this might occur. Bem (1972) has
argued that people observe their own behaviors to understand what attitudes may
have caused them (i.e., self-perception theory). For example, people given extrinsic
rewards to do something they already enjoy doing are more likely to view the
behavior as less intrinsically appealing (i.e., the overjustification effect) because this
is what an impartial observer would have concluded as well. Other researchers have
shown the far-reaching implications of this theory. In a study by Valins (1966), when
participants were made to believe their heartbeat had increased while viewing a
photograph of a person, they came to believe the person in the photograph was
more attractive. In a study by Frank and Gilovich (1988), subjects that wore black
uniforms behaved more aggressively than subjects in white uniforms. According to
Frank and Gilovich, wearing a black uniform is a behavior that the subjects used
to infer their own dispositions—‘‘Just as observers see those in black uniforms as
tough, mean, and aggressive, so too does the person wearing that uniform’’ (p. 83).
The subjects then adhere to this new identity by behaving more aggressively. And
finally, this effect has been replicated more recently in a digital environment, where
users given avatars in a black robe expressed a higher desire to commit antisocial
behaviors than users given avatars in a white robe (Merola, Penas, & Hancock, 2006).
Another line of research has shown that the impact of identity cues is particularly
strong when people are deindividuated. Zimbardo (1969) originally used deindividuation
theory to argue that urban or crowded areas cause deindividuation that leads to
antisocial behavior; however, it has also been shown that deindividuation can lead to
affiliative behavior as well (Gergen, Gergen, & Barton, 1973). When dyads were
placed in a darkened room for an hour, many deliberately touched or hugged the
other person. On the other hand, dyads in the fully lit room talked politely and did
not engage in physical contact. Thus, the effects of deindividuation are not necessarily
antisocial. The argument that deindividuation can lead to both prosocial and
antisocial behavior has also been demonstrated in another well-known study. In
a teacher–learner paradigm with electric shock as punishment, subjects in costumes
that resembled Ku Klux Klan robes delivered significantly longer shocks than subjects
in nurse uniforms (Johnson & Downing, 1979). It was also found that these
effects were stronger when subjects were made anonymous in the study. Thus,
deindividuation does not necessarily always lead to antisocial behavior as Zimbardo
originally argued but may in fact cause a greater reliance on identity cues whether
they are antisocial or prosocial.
N. Yee & J. Bailenson The Proteus Effect
Human Communication Research 33 (2007) 271–290 ª 2007 International Communication Association 273
In the CMC literature, the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE)
(Postmes, Spears, & Lea, 1998; Spears & Lea, 1994) argued that factors that lead to
deindividuation, such as anonymity, might thus reinforce group salience and conformity
to group norms. In this light, deindividuation does not, in and of itself,
always lead to antinormative behavior, but rather, behavioral changes depend on the
local group norms (Postmes, Spears, & Lea, 2000). More importantly, behavior that
is typically seen as antinormative, such as flaming on message boards (Lea, O’Shea,
& Spears, 1992), may in fact turn out to be normative and expected in particular
contexts (Postmes et al., 1998).
The Proteus Effect
Online environments that afford anonymity are like digital versions of a darkened
room where deindividuation might occur, and indeed, many researchers have suggested
that deindividuation occurs online due to anonymity or reduced social
cues (Kiesler et al., 1984; McKenna & Bargh, 2000). And in online environments,
the avatar is not simply a uniform that is worn, the avatar is our entire selfrepresentation.
Although the uniform is one of many identity cues in the studies
mentioned earlier, the avatar is the primary identity cue in online environments. Thus,
we might expect that our avatars have a significant impact on how we behave online.
Users who are deindividuated in online environments may adhere to a new identity
that is inferred from their avatars. And in the same way that subjects in black
uniforms conform to a more aggressive identity, users in online environments may
conform to the expectations and stereotypes of the identity of their avatars. Or more
precisely, in line with self-perception theory, they conform to the behavior that
they believe others would expect them to have. We term this the Proteus Effect.
Although the Proteus Effect is similar to SIDE theory, there are several important
theoretical differences. Most importantly, SIDE theory emphasizes conformity to
local group norms (e.g., becoming more hostile on a hostile message board). On
the other hand, the Proteus Effect emphasizes conformity to individual identity cues
(e.g., becoming friendlier in an attractive avatar). Thus, theoretically, it would also be
possible to pit one against the other—that is, having an attractive avatar on a hostile
message board. We would also argue that having an attribute (e.g., ‘‘being attractive’’)
is conceptually different from being among a group of individuals who have
that attribute (e.g., ‘‘being in a group of attractive people’’), whereas SIDE theory
literature tends to conflate the two. Thus, in a situation where Person A in a black
uniform interacts with Person B in a white uniform, SIDE theory might predict that
the social identity of Person A would default to the black uniform (i.e., become more
aggressive) or the combined colors of the group in question—in other words, gray
(i.e., remain neutral). The Proteus Effect would only predict the former. Another
point of differentiation is that although the SIDE theory operates on the basis of an
existing local group and its social norms, the Proteus Effect should operate even
when the user is alone. This is because self-perception theory is not predicated on the
The Proteus Effect N. Yee & J. Bailenson
274 Human Communication Research 33 (2007) 271–290 ª 2007 International Communication Association
actual presence of other people but simply that a person evaluates him or herself
from a third-person perspective (i.e., an imagined third party).
Collaborative virtual environments and transformed social interaction
In designing of our studies, it was crucial that we isolate the impact of the Proteus
Effect from that of behavioral confirmation. If participants were perceived to be
attractive and believed themselves to be attractive at the same time, it would be
impossible for us to claim that the Proteus Effect occurred independent of behavioral
confirmation. To isolate the potential effect of the Proteus Effect, we employed
a novel methodological paradigm. In the current set of studies, we utilized collaborative
virtual environments (CVEs, see Normand et al., 1999) to study the effects of
the Proteus Effect. CVEs are communication systems in which multiple interactants
share the same three-dimensional digital space despite occupying remote physical
locations. In a CVE, immersive virtual environment technology monitors the movements
and behaviors of individual interactants and renders those behaviors within
the CVE via avatars. These digital representations are tracked naturalistically by
optical sensors, mechanical devices, and cameras. Because these avatars are constantly
redrawn for each user during interaction, unique possibilities for social interaction
emerge (Blascovich et al., 2002; Loomis, Blascovich, & Beall, 1999).
Unlike telephone conversations and videoconferences, the physical appearance
and behavioral actions of avatars can be systematically filtered in immersive CVEs
idiosyncratically for other interactants, amplifying or suppressing features and nonverbal
signals in real time for strategic purposes. Theoretically, these transformations
should impact interactants’ persuasive and instructional abilities. Previously, we
outlined a theoretical framework for such strategic filtering of communicative
behaviors called Transformed Social Interaction (Bailenson, Beall, Blascovich,
Loomis, & Turk, 2005). In a CVE, every user perceives their own digital rendering
of the world and each other, and these renderings need not be congruent. In other
words, the target may perceive his or her own avatar as being attractive, whereas
the perceiver sees the target as being unattractive.
Previous work on transformed social interaction has demonstrated quite
resoundingly that changing one’s representation has large implications on other’s
in terms of social influence (Bailenson, 2006). In other words, transforming Avatar A
strategically causes Avatar B to behave consistently with the representation of Avatar A
(as opposed to the actual representation of Avatar A). In the current set of studies,
this decoupling of representation allowed us to test a separate question relating to
transforming a representation. Instead of seeing the strategic outcome of a transformation,
we examined whether our changes in self-representations—independent
of how others perceive us—cause the people behind the avatars to behave differently.
Overview of studies and hypotheses
In the current work, we conducted two experimental studies to explore the Proteus
Effect. Participants interacted with a confederate’s avatar in a virtual reality (VR)
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environment. In the first study, we manipulated the attractiveness of the participant’s
avatar while the confederate was blind to condition. Studies have shown that
attractive individuals are perceived to possess a constellation of positive traits (Dion,
Berscheid, & Walster, 1972) and are evaluated more favorably by jurors in courtrooms
(Friend & Vinson, 1974).
Interpersonal distance
According to nonverbal expectancy violations theory (Burgoon, 1978), when attractive
individuals violate nonverbal expectancies, such as moving too close to
someone, the positive valence that is created can be socially advantageous (Burgoon
&Walther, 1990; Burgoon,Walther, & Baesler, 1992). Given that attractive individuals
have higher confidence (Langlois et al., 2000), we hypothesized that
H1: Participants in the attractive condition walk closer to the confederate than the
participants in the unattractive condition.
Self-disclosure
Friendliness was one of the measures used in Snyder et al.’s (1977) original study,
and in this study, we used self-disclosure as a behavioral operationalization. Because
attractive individuals tend to be more extraverted and more friendly (Langlois et al.,
2000), we hypothesized that
H2: Participants in the attractive condition would exhibit higher self-disclosure and
present more pieces of information about themselves than participants in the
unattractive condition.
In the second study, we manipulated the height of the participant’s avatar again with
the confederate blind to the condition. Similar to the attractiveness literature, taller
people are perceived to be more competent (Young & French, 1996), more desirable
as romantic partners (Freedman, 1979; Harrison & Saeed, 1977), and more likely to
emerge as leaders (Stogdill, 1948). In this study, we implemented a negotiation task
to best gauge confidence.
H3: Participants in taller avatars would behave in a more confident manner and
negotiate more aggressively than participants in shorter avatars.
Experiment 1
Design
In a between-subjects design, participants were randomly assigned to have an avatar
with an attractive or unattractive face of his or her own gender and then interact with
a confederate. We followed the paradigm in the study by Snyder et al. (1977) and
always used a confederate of the opposite gender. The confederate was blind to the
attractiveness condition such that the participant’s avatar appeared to the confederate
with an untextured face—one which was structurally human but left uncolored.
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Participants
Thirty-two undergraduate students at Stanford (16 men and 16 women) participated
in the study for course credit.
Materials
Facial attractiveness pretest
We ran a pretest to get subjective determinations of attractive and unattractive faces
(for the participants), and also average attractiveness faces (for the confederates). To
minimize the chances that our findings would be driven by idiosyncrasies of a particular
face, we chose two faces in each of these three attractiveness conditions. Thus,
there were two attractive faces, two unattractive faces, and two average faces for each
gender. In total, we used 12 faces in the study.
To generate these 12 faces, digital photographs of 34 undergraduate students
(17 male and 17 female) from a different academic institution from the main study
were used in a pretest. The chances of participant recognition of these faces were thus
minimized. To reduce other variations in facial features, only Caucasians were used
in the pretest.1 Frontal and profile photographs of these 34 undergraduate students
were converted into digital, three-dimensional head busts using 3DMeNow software.
These three-dimensional head busts were then converted into Vizard 2.17 models,
our CVE platform, and attached to generic male and female bodies. Finally, a frontal
and three-quarter screenshot of every face was taken (see Figure 1). Thus, altogether,
68 screenshots were generated.
Figure 1 Faces with high, medium, and low attractiveness ratings by gender.
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Fourteen undergraduates from a separate subject pool from the main study used
a web-based survey to rate the attractiveness of every screenshot’s face on a unipolar
seven-point fully labeled construct-specific scale (from not attractive at all to
extremely attractive). The frontal and three-quarter screenshot of every face were
thus rated separately. Each screenshot was shown by itself and the order of faces
was uniquely randomized for every rater.
The ratings of the frontal and three-quarter image of every face were averaged.
Then six faces were selected for each gender, where the two attractive faces were each
rated as significantly more attractive than the two average faces, and the two average
faces were each rated as significantly more attractive than the two unattractive faces.
All pairwise t tests had a p value less than .05 (dfs = 26). The 12 faces used in the study
are shown in Figure 1. The means and standard deviations of their attractiveness
ratings are shown in Table 1. In the entire sample of faces we pretested, the mean
attractiveness was 3.09 with a standard deviation of 1.30. The faces we chose for the
high-attractiveness condition had a mean of 4.63 and a standard deviation of 1.22,
whereas the faces in the low-attractiveness condition had a mean of 1.61 and a standard
deviation of 0.83. Thus, our faces in the high-and-low attractiveness conditions
varied from the average by about one standard deviation.
The physical lab setting
The lab consisted of two rooms with an open doorway. In the room where the study
took place, a black curtain divided the room. To ensure that confederates and
participants were not biased by the attractiveness of each other’s real faces, confederates
stayed behind this black curtain until the VR interaction began and thus never
saw the participant’s real face and vice versa.
The virtual setting
The virtual setting was a white room that had the same exact dimensions as the
physical room participants were in (see Figure 2). Two meters behind the participant
was a virtual mirror that reflected the head orientation (rotations along pitch, yaw,
and roll) and body translation (translation on X, Y, and Z) of the participant with the
designated face (see Figure 2). Thus, the mirror image tracked and reflected six
degrees of freedom such that when the participant moved in physical space, his or
her avatar moved in perfect synchrony in the mirror. The confederate’s avatar was
Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations of Attractiveness Ratings for Avatar Faces
Female Male
Attractiveness
Face 1
M (SD)
Face 2
M (SD)
Face 1
M (SD)
Face 2
M (SD)
High 5.50 (1.35) 4.32 (1.25) 4.64 (1.19) 4.04 (1.10)
Medium 3.39 (1.47) 3.50 (1.40) 3.11 (1.34) 2.93 (1.65)
Low 2.29 (1.15) 1.18 (0.55) 1.75 (1.11) 1.21 (0.50)
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Figure 2 The equipment setup is shown in the top panel. In the lab space, the participant
wears the head-mounted display (HMD) (A). The orientation device (B) attached to the
HMD tracks rotation, whereas the cameras (C) are used for optical tracking of the participant’s
position in the room. The virtual room with the confederate is shown in the middle left
panel. In the middle right panel is the participant’s view of the mirror. In the bottom panel is
a diagram showing the layout of the room, the position of the Subject (S), the position of the
Confederate (C), and the curtain.
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located 5 m in front of the participant, facing the participant, and remained invisible
until the conversational portion of the experiment began. The confederate’s avatar
also had an automated blink animation based on human blinking behavior and lip
movement that matched the volume of the confederate’s speech.
Apparatus
Perspectively correct stereoscopic images were rendered at an average frame rate of
60 Hz. The simulated viewpoint was continually updated as a function of the participants’
head movements, which were tracked by a three-axis orientation sensing
system. The position of the participant along the x, y, and z planes were tracked via
an optical tracking system. Participants wore an nVisor SX head-mounted display
(HMD) that featured dual 1,280 horizontal by 1,024 vertical pixel resolution panels
that refreshed at 60 Hz. See Figure 2 for the equipment setup.
Procedure
Three researcher assistants were present during each trial—the lead research assistant,
the male confederate, and the female confederate. The confederate in the trial
was always the opposite gender of the participant and remained blind to condition.
Participants were told that the goal of the experiment was to study social interaction
in virtual environments and that they would be having a conversation with another
person in a virtual environment. Once the virtual world was loaded, participants saw
themselves in a room that was exactly the same dimensions as the physical lab room,
as depicted in Figure 2.
Participants were then asked by the lead research assistant to turn around 180
and asked to verify that they saw a mirror in front of them. After verbal affirmation,
participants were then told that this is how they appeared to others in the
virtual room. Several exercises (head tilting and nodding in front of the mirror)
were used to make sure participants had enough time to observe their avatars’
faces. Every participant was thus exposed to the designated face for between 60 and
75 seconds.
Participants were then asked to turn back around to face the front (i.e., their
original orientation). Slightly ahead of time, the lead research assistant had triggered
the program to make the confederate’s avatar visible to the participant in the virtual
world. The lead research assistant then introduced the confederate to the participant.
The confederate followed a strict script that was displayed in their HMD so they
could follow the specific verbal procedures while interacting with the participant
inside the CVE. Their behaviors were not scripted, and they were instructed to use
natural head movements when interacting with the participant. First, participants
were greeted and asked to walk closer to the confederate. When the participant
stopped or asked whether the distance was close enough, the confederate would then
ask them to move a little closer. The confederate then asked the participants to
introduce themselves. When the participants stopped or asked whether what they
said was enough, the confederate asked the participants to say a little more. If the
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participants ever asked the confederate any other question, the confederate would
reply with ‘‘I’m sorry. I can’t answer that question. Let’s continue.’’
Measures
Interpersonal distance
The distance between the participant and the confederate was automatically tracked
by the VR system. Previous research has validated the interpersonal distance measure
inside CVEs (Bailenson, Blascovich, Beall, & Loomis, 2003).
Self-disclosure
The amount of self-disclosure was measured by counting the number of pieces of
information that participants gave during the two introduction prompts near the
beginning of the conversational portion of the study (e.g., ‘‘Tell me a little bit about
yourself’’ and ‘‘Tell me a little more’’). Two blind coders were asked to count the
number of pieces of information given by the participants. Every tape recording was
coded by two blind coders, and the coder interreliability was .84.
Results and discussion
To ensure that our attractiveness manipulation was not so obvious as to elicit strong
demand characteristics, we asked all participants to write a paragraph and guess the
intent of the experiment. Two coders blind to experimental condition read through
these responses. Most participants guessed that the goal was to study conversational
dynamics in VR as compared with face-to-face interactions. According to both
coders, no participant mentioned attractiveness or mentioned that they thought
the avatar’s attractiveness was manipulated in the study.
Interpersonal distance
We ran a t test with attractiveness as the between-subject variable2 and the final
distance as the dependent variable. Participants in the attractive condition walked
significantly closer to the confederate (M = 0.98, SD = 0.36) than participants in the
unattractive condition (M = 1.74, SD = 1.20), t(30) = 22.42, p = .02, d = .40.
Self-disclosure
We performed a t test using attractiveness as the between-subject variable and the
self-disclosure count as the dependent variable. Participants in the attractive condition
revealed significantly more pieces of information (M = 7.19, SD = 2.77) than
participants in the unattractive condition (M = 5.42, SD = 1.56), t(30) = 2.23,
p = .03, d = .38.
The results from the first experiment provided support for the Proteus Effect—
that our self-representations shape our behaviors in turn. Participants in the attractive
condition were willing to move closer to the confederate and disclosed more
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information to the confederate than participants in the unattractive condition. More
importantly, this effect was measurable and significant immediately after only a brief
exposure to the mirror task. The effect size in the current study—interpersonal
distances changes of almost a meter—are quite large, much more so than effects
found in previous studies on interpersonal distance (Bailenson et al., 2003), which
were less than 15 cm. The reason the current manipulation produced such a drastic
effect is most likely due to the personal nature of the social interaction.
Experiment 2
In the second experiment, we replicated the Proteus Effect with another manipulation—
height. Because height is more often associated with self-esteem and competence
rather than friendliness (Young & French, 1996), we employed a different
behavioral measure. Instead of a proximity and self-disclosure task, a negotiation
task—the ‘‘ultimatum game’’ (Forsythe, Horowitz, Savin, & Sefton, 1994)—was used
as a behavioral measure of confidence. In the ultimatum game, two individuals take
turns to decide how a pool of money should be split between the two of them. One
individual makes the split, and the other must choose to either accept or reject the
split. If the split is accepted, the money is shared accordingly. If the split is rejected,
neither of them gets the money. We hypothesized that participants with taller avatars
would be more confident and be more willing to make unfair splits than participants
in shorter avatars.
Design
In a between-subjects design, participants were randomly assigned to have an avatar
that was shorter, taller, or the same height as a confederate who was of the opposite
gender. We relied on demographic data to assign the base height and height differences
in the study. From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study
(NHANES) 2003–2004 data set (National Center for Health Statistics [NCHS],
2004), we calculated the mean and standard deviation of height among Caucasians
aged 18–22 in the U.S. population. The mean height was 171.5 cm (or 5 feet and 7.5
inches) with a standard deviation of 10.2 cm. Although men and women have
different average heights, we decided to use the same base height across all conditions
to avoid confounding height with gender in the experimental design. In our study,
the confederate had a base height of 172 cm. In the short condition, participants were
10 cm shorter than the confederate. In the tall condition, participants were 10 cm
taller than the confederate. In the same height condition, participants were the same
height as the confederate. Thus, the size of our manipulations in the short and tall
conditions was about one standard deviation in height. In our study, the confederate
was blind to the height condition and the participant’s avatar always appeared to the
confederate as the same height.3 In other words, confederates did not know the experimental
condition and always perceived the participant as the same height as themselves.
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Participants
Participants were 50 undergraduate students at Stanford who were paid $10 for
their participation.
Materials
The physical lab and the virtual setting of Experiment 2 were identical to the ones
described in Experiment 1 except there was no mirror in the virtual room.
Apparatus
The apparatus used in Experiment 2 was identical to the apparatus described in
Experiment 1.
Procedure
Three researcher assistants were present during each trial—the lead research assistant,
the male confederate, and the female confederate. The confederate was always
the opposite gender of the participant and was blind to condition. Participants were
told that the goal of the experiment was to study social interaction in VR environments
and that they would be having a conversation with another person in VR.
Once the VR world was loaded, participants saw themselves in a room that was
exactly the same dimensions as the physical lab room they were in. The confederate’s
avatar was visible across the virtual room.
The confederate followed a strict verbal script that was displayed in their HMD.
Their behaviors were not scripted, and they were instructed to use natural head
movements when interacting with the participant. First, participants were greeted
by the confederate. The confederate then asked the participants to introduce themselves.
After the introductory phase, the lead research assistant explained the moneysharing
task. A hypothetical pool of $100 was to be split between the confederate and
the participant. One of the two would designate a split. The other would either accept
or reject the split. If the split was accepted, the money would be shared accordingly. If
the split was rejected, neither would receive any money. The participant was told
there would be four rounds of this game and that the lead research assistant would
alternate as to who would be making the split for each round.
The participant always designated the split in the first and third rounds. The
confederate was instructed to always accept a split as long as it did not exceed $90 in
favor of the participant. The confederate always designated a split of 50/50 in the
second round and 75/25 (in the confederate’s favor) in the fourth round. These two
ratios were chosen to represent a fair and unfair split. After the money-sharing task,
the participant was taken out of the virtual setting.
Measures
Monetary splits
The split offers were recorded by the research assistant during the negotiation task.
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Results and discussion
To ensure that our height manipulation was not so obvious as to elicit strong
demand characteristics, we asked all participants to guess the intent of the experiment.
Two coders blind to condition read through the responses. Most participants
guessed that the goal was to study conversational dynamics in VR as compared with
face-to-face interactions. According to both coders, no participant mentioned height
or guessed that height was manipulated in the study.
Negotiation behavior
There were three measures of interest: amount offered by participant in the first
round (from hereon referred to as Split 1), amount offered by participant in the third
round (from hereon referred to as Split 2), and whether the participant accepted the
unfair split by the confederate in the final round (from hereon referred to as final
split). Three outliers (more than three standard deviations from the mean) in Split 1
and Split 3 were excluded from analysis. The cutoffs were 88.5 and 84.2, respectively.
We ran an analysis of variance (ANOVA) with height as the between-subject
factor and Split 1 as the dependent variable. The effect of height was not significant,
F(2, 47) = 0.63, p = .53, h2 = .03, see Table 2.
We then ran an ANOVA with height as the between-subject factor and Split 3 as
the dependent variable. There was a main effect of height, F(2, 46) = 5.64, p = .006,
h2 = .20. A post hoc test using Tukey’s Honest Significant Difference (HSD) showed that
participants in the tall condition split the money significantly more in their own favor
(M= 60.63, SD = 6.55) than participants in the short condition (M= 52.06, SD = 7.30),
p = .004. See Table 2 for all means and standard deviations of the splits by condition.
Finally, to test the effect of height on the acceptance rate of the final unfair offer,
we ran a logistic regression using acceptance rate as the dependent variable and
height (recoded short as 1, normal as 2, and tall as 3) as the independent variable.
Height was a significant predictor of acceptance rate, x2(1, N = 50) = 4.41, p = .04.
Prediction success for acceptance of the unfair offer was 54%, and it was 80% for
rejection of the unfair offer. Participants in the short condition were about twice as
likely to accept the unfair offer (72%) as participants in the normal (31%) and tall
condition (38%).
We were surprised that the effect of height on negotiation did not emerge until
the second split. Informal discussion with the research assistants and review of the
Table 2 The Means and Standard Deviations of Interpersonal Distance and Split 1 Across
Height Conditions
Height Split 1 Split 2 Final Split
Short 54.99 (12.47) 52.06 (7.30) 0.72 (0.46)
Normal 58.69 (15.85) 55.69 (8.10) 0.31 (0.48)
Tall 53.75 (10.25) 60.63 (6.55) 0.38 (0.50)
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recordings suggest that many participants were ‘‘testing the waters’’ in the first split
but became more bold in the second split. In any case, the effect of height on the
second split was highly significant and suggests that the manipulation of height does
affect negotiation behavior, but that these effects may emerge over time.
In summary, our findings from Experiment 2 extended the Proteus Effect with
a different manipulation. Participants in the tall condition were significantly more
likely to offer an unfair split than participants in the normal and short conditions. At
the same time, participants in the short condition were significantly more likely to
accept an unfair split than participants in the normal and tall condition. Thus, our
findings from the negotiation task support the Proteus Effect.
General discussion
Across different behavioral measures and different representational manipulations,
we observed the effect of an altered self-representation on behavior. Participants who
had more attractive avatars exhibited increased self-disclosure and were more willing
to approach opposite-gendered strangers after less than 1 minute of exposure to their
altered avatar. In other words, the attractiveness of their avatars impacted how
intimate participants were willing to be with a stranger. In our second study, participants
who had taller avatars were more willing to make unfair splits in negotiation
tasks than those who had shorter avatars, whereas participants with shorter
avatars were more willing to accept unfair offers than those who had taller avatars.
Thus, the height of their avatars impacted how confident participants became. These
two studies show the dramatic and almost instantaneous effect that avatars have on
behavior in digital environments.
In our experimental studies, we purposefully excluded the effect of behavioral
confirmation even though it too clearly plays a crucial role in social interactions—
both online and offline. The advantage of this exclusion was that it enabled us to
isolate the effect of changing an individual’s self-representation. The disadvantage is
the inability to understand how these changes may unfold in an actual situation
where the Proteus Effect interacts with behavioral confirmation. What is striking
about the current data is that we demonstrated drastic changes in behavior even
though there was absolutely no way for behavioral conformation to occur, as the
confederates always were blind to experimental condition. Another limitation was
that we were unable to explore the role of choice in the Proteus Effect. In our studies,
participants were given avatars rather than being able to choose their own avatar—
the typical situation in online environments. However, it bears pointing out that the
range of avatar choice in many online environments is not truly diverse. For example,
in the social online world There.com, users can only create youthful avatars. Old
people do not exist in There. In other words, there may be many features of our
avatars that we actually do not have control over in online environments.
Another limitation in our studies was the lack of a direct manipulation check.
Because our theoretical claim is based partly on self-perception theory, our results
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would have been more convincing if participants in the attractive condition rated
their avatar as indeed more attractive than participants in the unattractive condition.
And finally, our reliance on the opposite-gender paradigm may have limited our
studies to a certain class of interactional behavior (e.g., with a romantic or sexual
tone). It would be interesting to carry out additional studies in same-gender pairings
to examine this potential bias.
Future research in this area might focus on several other things. First, the Proteus
Effect may generalize to other fundamental aspects of self-representation, such as
gender or race. For example, when male participants employ female avatars, they
may behave in a more gender-stereotypical manner. Second, examining whether or
not there are long-term consequences of the Proteus Effect, which carry over into the
physical world, is obviously an important research agenda. Do users who frequently
use tall and attractive avatars become more confident and friendly in real life? If so,
virtual environments may be an excellent venue for therapeutic purposes. Third,
examining the role of choice in the Proteus Effect might reveal that choice either
augments or diminishes the effect. Also, while we argued in the theoretical framing
that the Proteus Effect could occur even if participants were alone and not in a group
setting, this was something we did not directly test for in our experimental designs. It
would be interesting to devise similar experiments where participants were not in
a group setting.
And finally, we suggest that the most interesting area of research lies in the
mismatch of self-representation and how others perceive us. In the traditional behavioral
confirmation paradigm, the false assumptions of the perceiver are unknown to
the target. Unlike the target-centric paradigm that denies the target of their awareness
of how others may stereotype them, we have shown that an individual’s false
self-concept (i.e., self-stereotyping) has a significant impact on their behavior. More
importantly, the false self-concept may override behavioral confirmation. In our
studies, participants using attractive avatars became more intimate and friendly with
strangers. This initial friendliness may elicit more positive responses from the interactant
and lead to a more positive interaction overall. Thus, we hypothesize that the
precise reverse of behavioral confirmation—a target’s false self-concept causes them
to interact with the perceiver in a way such that the perceiver behaves in a way that
confirms the target’s false self-concept—can occur. The most interesting test of this
hypothesis may be to pit the Proteus Effect against behavioral confirmation. In other
words, future work should examine an experimental paradigm in which participants
believe that they are attractive, whereas other interactants perceive them as unattractive.
A similar research agenda has been proposed by Blascovich and colleagues
(Blascovich et al., 2002).
The Proteus Effect is a particularly important theoretical framework in
understanding behavior in virtual environments where users are able to choose or
customize their avatar’s appearances. In our experimental studies, dyads interacted
after one interactant had their self-representation manipulated. In virtual communities,
thousands of users interact with altered self-representations. In many of these
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environments, the only avatar choices are youthful, in shape, and attractive. If having
an attractive avatar can increase a person’s confidence and their degree of selfdisclosure
within minutes, then this has substantial implications for users in virtual
environments. First, the Proteus Effect may impact behavior on the community level.
When thousands of users interact, most of whom have chosen attractive avatars, the
virtual community may become more friendly and intimate. This may impact the
likelihood of relationship formation online (Parks & Floyd, 1996). As graphical
avatars become the dominant mode of self-representation in virtual environments,
the Proteus Effect may play a substantial role in encouraging hyperpersonal interaction
(see Walther, 1996). And second, these behavioral changes may carry over to
the physical world. If users spend more than 20 hours a week in these environments
(Yee, 2006), in an avatar that is tall and attractive, is an equilibrium state reached or
do two separate behavioral repertoires emerge?
The set of studies presented in this paper makes clear that our selfrepresentations
have a significant and instantaneous impact on our behavior. The
appearances of our avatars shape how we interact with others. As we choose our selfrepresentations
in virtual environments, our self-representations shape our behaviors
in turn. These changes happen not over hours or weeks but within minutes.
Every day, millions of users interact with each other via graphical avatars in real
time in online games (Chan & Vorderer, 2006). All of them are using an avatar that
differs from their physical appearance. In fact, most of them are using avatars that
are attractive, powerful, youthful, and athletic. Although most research in CMC has
focused on the technical affordances of the medium (lack of social cues, social presence,
anonymity, etc.), we argue that theoretical frameworks of self-representation
cannot be ignored because choosing who we are is a fundamental aspect of virtual
environments. More importantly, who we choose to be in turn shapes how we behave.
Although avatars are usually construed as something of our own choosing—
a one-way process—the fact is that our avatars come to change how we behave.
Acknowledgments
The current work was partially supported by National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant 0527377. The authors would like to thank Claire Carlson, Gerron Crochet, and
Kathryn Rickertsen for their assistance in conducting the experiment, as well as Jim
Blascovich for providing helpful feedback on an earlier draft of the paper.
Notes
1 In the analysis of Experiment 1, there was no significant interaction effect with the race
of the participant. In Experiment 2, participants do not see their own avatar, so this was
not an issue.
2 In both studies, the effect of subject gender was not significant, and including this factor
in the ANOVA did not change the reported significance of the results.
N. Yee & J. Bailenson The Proteus Effect
Human Communication Research 33 (2007) 271–290 ª 2007 International Communication Association 287
3 In the cases where this caused a mismatch between the perceived and actual height of the
participant’s avatar, real-time algorithms using trigonometry were used to correct the
eye-gaze angle between the participant and the confederate to preserve the possibility of
making eye contact.
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CSI:NY and Second Life

CSI:NY and Second Life
For his keynote at the Virtual Worlds Conference recently the creator and executive producer of the three CSIs, Anthony Zuiker, announced that there will be a specially written episode of CSI:NY which will include a search for a killer in the online virtual world Second Life (SL). However, beyond featuring SL in the TV plot, audiences will be able to help solve the crime by going into SL and visiting a specially created CSI lab . Virtual Worlds News reports:

In the fifth episode of the upcoming season, TV Guide reports that a murderer will escape into Second Life and not return until spring. Users can help solve the murder in the meantime.

“The campaign will be something like, ‘Your first life begins at 10 o’clock. But your Second Life begins this weekend.’ You’ll be able to go and download and get in the site and play in the [’CSI’] lab.”

The Sheep are working to build a virtual lab where users can recreate the experiments and tests from the show. There will also be contests through a Zuiker Blog, allowing users to view a dead body and formulate an opinion on what happened. Zuiker will then rank the responses.

Zuiker has also described he location as an ongoing mystery lab: “What I’m creating is this multimedia, virtual crime lab that will actually take place and be live and active that same weekend for the next year. You’ll now be able to actually solve one crime per month, like a real investigator.” [source]

A writer for CSI: NY, Peter Lenkov, elaborates:

“Nina [Tassler], the CBS executive has been talking about this for a while… [Episode five] is basically a forensic investigation into Second Life, an online social network, a metaverse where you go on, you create an avatar and cruise different worlds. Part of our investigation is going in there. Mac Taylor has to create an avatar and go and hunt down a killer who is using somebody’s avatar to commit a murder. It’s a little bit of a CSI: New York sci-fi internet pursuit with a big action sequence at the end of the episode. It’s fun; it actually has a big moment for Mac and Adam because Adam sort of becomes this big expert in the world of Second Life. He’s done it before, so he sort of guides Mac into the how or the where of it all. I think it’s going to be a fun episode. It’s very different,” he revealed. [source]

Zuiker is also quoted saying “It’s going to be the biggest cross-platform stunt in TV history.”

Hmmm. I never like hearing ‘biggest’ and ’first’ claims, the former because you don’t know that until after the event and the latter because the claims are 99% of the time incorrect. For instance, here is an example of a ‘cross-platform’ stunt that I have referred to many times in my talks and essays: In the late 1990s the Homicide TV show extended to the web. When the TV detectives clocked off for the day, the ’second shift’ of detectives took over on the web. Then in Feb 1999 a case (webcast killing) was investigated by the online detectives, was followed up by the TV detectives and then concluded the following week on the online detectives. The website included forensic evidence that the audience/users/interactors could work with to help solve the case. As we can see from this pivotal example, their are other cross-platform stunts. The problem with the ‘world first’ and ‘biggest ever’ rhetoric is that it is supported by an intricate eco-system: the press want such claims to make their articles more appealing to readers and viewers, and audiences are attracted by them. Just describing a project isn’t enough it seems, it has to have some contemporary and original gloss in order to be interesting. Or so it seems.

Another quote I found interesting was this one by journalist Ellen Gray:

Ideas for cross-platform stunting usually originate with marketing guys, not writers, but that’s a line the relentlessly energetic Zuiker’s never appeared to notice. [source]

It never ceases to amaze me how people bundle together cross-platform approaches and marketing. Given, there are good reasons for it: they are usually motivated and implemented by people other than the writers and ‘cross-platform’ and ‘multi-channel’ etc approaches have been used by marketers for a while. One of reasons why a cross-platform approach has been driven by marketers is that there has been a dearth of writers who think multi-platform. It has been something that has been added on afterwards or has been implemented using a marketing logic. But this is changing as there are a new generation of writers emerging. But using multiple media platforms is not intrinsically marketing.


And another quote of Zuiker from TVGuide:

The future of television in my opinion really is television, mobile, gaming and Internet. If I can incorporate all four of them with the television show as a center conduit, what will happen is that you’ll have the younger generation teaching their parents how to do this. CSI: NY will be a wild child in doing that this season. [source]

OK, yes, I agree in part. But I’d say that a future of television is to use multiple media platforms and artforms (not just TV, mobile, gaming & the Internet). As for central conduit, I’m not so sure. I think Zuiker means that the TV will be the primary media channel. But TV is not a good aggregator, and so the hub that links all the components should be bundled together on a website. And as for the younger generation teaching their parents. Sure, I like the idea of facilitating cross-generational interaction, but please don’t bundle together mobiles, gaming and the Internet with ‘youth’. Indeed, Second Life has an older demographic than some other virtual worlds.

In summary, I’m sick of the rhetoric around cross-platform projects in mass entertainment but very pleased to see writers involved in many integrated cross-platform events.

RPI second life news network episode two

Fighting fakes in a virtual world

Fighting fakes in a virtual world


More than 100 big name firms have a Second Life presence
Take a trip to an inner-city market stall and there's a good chances that you will be able to pick up a watch or a pair of sunglasses, being passed off as made by Rolex or Oakley.

The goods will invariably be cheap and, almost certainly, bootleg - or fake - versions of the real thing.

Now go on a shopping spree in the virtual world of Second Life - the 3D world populated by on-screen representations (avatars) of real life people, and you will see a similar phenomenon.

Here, the possessions don't physically exist. They are computer-generated adornments for your avatar, in the game.

But products like these are appearing - often without the permission of the brand owner.

Legal presence

The design of Second Life means that players, or rather residents, can make and sell goods in exchange for the world's currency, the Linden Dollar, which has an exchange rate with the US dollar.

Currently $1 will buy about 240 Linden Dollars.

And commerce is booming, with transactions worth about $1.5m in real money taking place every day.



Creating a virtual presence can be expensive

Firms are clamouring to get involved with more than 100 big brand names having a presence - from Coca-Cola and Microsoft to BMW and the fashion designer Jean-Paul Gautier - as well as thousands of smaller traders.




But when they do get on board, some are finding that their intellectual property (IP) - typically brands and content they own - are already there.

So perhaps it is inevitable that one of Second Life's newest residents is a UK law firm


Rip-offs

Inside the virtual world, visitors to the swish offices of Field Fisher Waterhouse see floor-to-ceiling glass windows, fish tanks built into the walls and can-meet representatives of the firm.



In part, it sees its arrival as another means of promoting the firm and attracting potential employees. And by hosting a real-world, real-time conference in its virtual office, attendees from around the world can participate, all at little cost.

But, says partner David Naylor, it is also positioning itself to drum up some business - advising on legal matters which crop up in the virtual world.

"Second Life's technology makes it as easy for users to create infringing contents and assets as it is to create original, non-infringing items."

SECOND LIFE FACTS
Registered users; 8.7m
Active users: 1.7m
Amount spent a day: $1.5m
Source: Linden Labs





"Often the people buying it won't be able to tell it is a rip-off and probably don't care. But the sellers are cashing in on the goodwill that has been built up in the real world by these brands for their own gain.

"It's a frontier-like environment and the economics of piracy-related activities are too compelling for some."




While nothing is certain in the rapidly developing environment of the virtual world, Mr Naylor feels it is inevitable that the situation will come to a head at some stage.

"Given the increasing amounts at stake, the real question might not be whether we see IP infringement-related actions brought in connection with virtual world activities, but how will they play out," he says.

Setting bad example


A Second Life resident himself, Mr Naylor's avatar is called Solomon Cortes, a dapper chap, whose wardrobe includes a smart suit he bought in-world to customise his appearance.


There is little to stop an offender creating another avatar - or character - and start infringing again

David Naylor, Field Fisher Waterhouse


While his clothes have come from "official" outlets, not all people who should know better are so scrupulous.

"There are some companies, even quite high profile ones, which have created virtual replicas of real world buildings or deck out their Second Life offices with designs, artwork and virtual furniture which are blatantly infringing copyright," he says.

"So when you consider that even they are doing it, it's no wonder there's a problem."

Second Life has about 8.7 million users worldwide - though only about 1.7 million have accounts used in the past three months.

Many regularly spend a few Linden Dollars on things which boost their enjoyment of the environment from trips to a casino to replica football kits.

Users can also buy vehicles as a means of travelling around Second Life.

These include cars, sold by dealerships set up by real-life motor firms. Other sellers flog unauthorised versions of the same cars.


David Naylor, aka Solomon Cortes, dresses to impress potential clients

Buying something branded without the authorisation of the company concerned not only means it misses out on revenue - but - Mr Naylor argues leaves them open to damaged reputation.

In the case of Mercedes, the firm has built a race track where users can test drive its latest models.



"They will have spent a lot of time and money on doing that," Mr Naylor says.

"If someone comes along with a fake Mercedes car which does not work well or looks like an old version of a vehicle, or underperforms against Mercedes own virtual cars, then you can see why the company might be unhappy."


Cinema sessions

As more businesses move in to the virtual environment, it is also becoming increasingly possible to buy real world goods from Second Life's virtual stores.

Dell, for example, allows users to customise a PC within the virtual world and have the real thing delivered to their doorstep.

"That this is happening makes protecting your brand in-world even more important," Mr Naylor argues.

Many firms already anxious about IP abuse in the virtual world are already facing the situation elsewhere on the internet.

While music and film companies battle against illegal downloading and the plethora of their copyrighted material on websites such as YouTube, Second Life is equally full of such content.

A visit to in-world cinemas will allow you to watch releases including the Latest Pirates of the Caribbean film to The Simpsons movie, while the bars play hits from Rhianna to the Rolling Stones.

However despite what seem to be legitimate legal concerns - and the presence of lawyers such as Mr Naylor - it is not always clear what action, can be taken. not least because avatars mean that real identities are kept secret


Companies are adding unusual features to their virtual offices


"Finding out who is behind illegal practices could be a drawn out process, potential requiring legal action forcing the identity of the perpetrators to be revealed," Mr Naylor adds.

"And even if successful, there is little to stop an offender creating another avatar - or character - and start infringing again."

Then there is the problem of establishing under which jurisdiction the offence is committed.

Is it in the country where the perpetrator is based? Or perhaps in San Francisco where the Linden Labs' servers are located?

Despite the difficulties, Mr Naylor feels that there will become a need for advice to be offered to those firms which choose to get involved in virtual worlds.

This could range from what rights you have over land in-world to the employment law implications of hiring another resident in your virtual business.

"There are definitely risks for firms which get involved in virtual worlds, but there also great opportunities too."