10: Becoming a Werewolf

The Proteus Effect refers to the concept that people conform to the behavior that they believe others would expect them to have. Because the avatar is our entire self-representation in many online environments (and therefore primarily identify cue), it has a significant impact on how we behave online. Drawing on SIDE Theory, the Proteus Effect speaks to the fact that users who are deindividuated in online environments adhere to the new identify that is inferred from their avatars.

In order to examine the implications of the Proteus Effect, I turned to the online game Second Life. As this was my first time playing the game, I naturally was excited to begin. I quickly decided to take on the identity of “Pepper Bernard,” whose body resembled a female werewolf. After completing the tutorial and learning how to navigate around the Second Life community, I entered one of the islands and began to interact with other Second Life players.

I chose my werewolf avatar because I saw it as cute, friendly, and whimsical. Although the avatar clearly did not exude sex-appeal, I thought it was an attractive and endearing. According to Yee and Bailenson’s prediction, my attractive avatar would (a) lead me to walker closer to other participants in the community, and (b) behave more confidently when interacting with other players. As it was difficult for me to judge the avatar’s height, I cannot comment on the researcher’s third hypothesis.

At the beginning of the game, my experience conformed to both hypotheses. I was confident in my appearance and therefore readily approached players and interacted with them in close proximity. My desire to get close to other avatars was so strong that I actually bumped into several while trying to speak with them. Furthermore, I was confident in my language and told other avatars that I found them attractive in order to get their attention.

As the game progressed, however, behavioral confirmation theory took hold. Apparently, other players in the game did not find me as attractive as I found myself and reacted coldly when I approached them. Furthermore, I found that not one avatar approached me voluntarily. Behavioral confirmation theory predicts that in this situation I would begin to interact with others in a colder, less confident manner. This is exactly what happened. I began to lose confidence in my attractiveness and tried to change my appearance in order to gain acceptance.

Yee and Bailenson comment that while they were able to isolate the Proteus Effect in the laboratory it often interacts with behavioral confirmation in reality. This is exactly what happened in my experience. It would be interesting to see if my confident, friendly demeanor would have persisted had I not received negative feedback from my Second Life peers.

http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/11/10-second-life-sucks-ill-keep-my-own.html

http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/11/10-frustrations-of-second-life.html