I participated in the Second Life, and I was my first time using a computer mediated multi-player game. I thought the experience was really interesting but the whole experience left me wondering how people can possibly spend so much time interacting in another “world.” My options for creating an actual avatar on second life were fairly limited. I choose one of the basic Nightclub avatars and then from there was given the options of only choosing from generic taller and fairly attractive avatars; there were not any really unattractive avatars to choose from. Yee and Bailenson discussed this same issue of limitations in creating avatars with certain features. Once I was actually in the game and began playing there was so many options, and places to go it was somewhat overwhelming.
Because I knew that my avatar was attractive I initially felt that is was OK to approach more people and start up conversations. I felt a slight increase in confidence knowing that my avatar was attractive even though I was very unsure of the customs and culture of Second Life. After a while though that confidence wore off because I knew that this avatar I was controlling had nothing to do with me in reality. My reasoning was “why should I act like I am extremely attractive or act like I have more confidence when in reality this game means nothing and to me will have no effect on how I really view myself.” Perhaps that was a very pessimistic view to have, but after reading the article on The Proteus Effect I was already aware of what my tendencies may be if I believed I was attractive.
Even though I may have not been in line with what Yee and Bailenson found because I was pre-exposed to their findings (and knew what to expect) I realized that when other avatars that were attractive approached they seemed to disclose a lot more personal information than those who were less attractive. I found this especially true in group setting on second life. I was once conversing in a group with two avatars and two of the three in the group were noticeably more fashionable and attractive. The other avatar did not converse as much and a few times their ideas and comments were actually put down.
So as found in the Proteus Effect I noticed that there was more confidence, self disclosure, and praise in dealings with attractive avatars than those who were less attractive. One particular concept that Yee and Bailenson found in their study that I thought was interesting was that the increase in confidence and dominance in behavior was almost immediate. I thought it would take time for someone, even if they knew they were attractive, to become comfortable enough to demonstrate those individual qualities.
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