A couple of weeks ago, Joystiq reported on the latest innovation in Sony's Massively Multiplayer Online Game EverQuest series: virtual hair salons. Vladimir Cole posits that this inclusion is directly related to why developers spend so much time and money on tweaking and perfecting their graphics:
Graphics matter because people love to customize their avatars.
Now there's a real can of worms.
I've often wondered why I rarely see unattractive avatars in any virtual space where users have control over their physical presence. If users can be anything, why not personalise themselves across the attractiveness spectrum?
After a brief trawl through the literature, I'm pleased to discover that there are all sorts of reasons why there are few ugly avatars online.
Most obviously, and in keeping with the escapist tradition of most games, there is an element of fantasy in the representation of a player which emerges in the form of an "ideal" self, often including a physically attractive outer shell. Your avatar is your public clothing, acting as a visual mnemonic for others who want to know who you are in the online space. As lilazngurl2156 explains to HillierT on Yahoo Answers in response to a similar question,
Sometimes they are true sometimes they are not.People love to have a dream image.It's not bad it just doesn't reflect on who you are.
Or does it? Surely, beyond the self-esteem issues of creating a particularly stunning online self there are psychological elements of oneself in the characterisation you choose. Furthermore, Jeremy Bailenson and Nick Yee at Stanford University argue that the representation of the virtual self may have implications for who you become online (via New Scientist).
In their research, they found that avatars which were more physically attractive stood virtually closer to other avatars. Other research suggests that these proxemics have an effect on how you interact in the virtual world, much like "IRL".
Yee also argues that avatar representation has social implications as well. He and his colleagues at the Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) collected data in World of Warcraft, an environment where personalisation is limited. With regards to the interpersonal aspects of physical attractiveness in virtual worlds, he posed some further behavioural ideas on Terra Nova:
Given that Alliance avatars are more attractive than Horde avatars (especially the female avatars), and given that many social interactions on Alliance side are parallels of the classic Behavioral Confirmation study - men interacting with who they believe are attractive women, might this cause Alliance players to become friendlier, more charming, and more sociable in general than Horde players over time regardless of their RL gender or attractiveness? That is to say, a form of behavioral confirmation cascade that has an effect on the community rather than simply the individual level.
This confirms early research into the visual 3D space, which found similar responses to attractive avatars. From John Suler's 1996 Psychology of Cyberspace:
A seductive, sexy, or simply "attractive" avatar can have a powerful impact on other members. One member described how his prop of a cartoon animal didn't seem to be getting him much attention from females. Most of them wouldn't talk to him. Curious about whether he could alter this situation, he searched the net and found a picture of Brad Pitt which he turned into a prop. The result?... Lots of attention. If he happened to be wearing his cartoon prop and found that he was being ignored by a woman, he would move to another room, switch to Brad Pitt, and then return. Or he would switch to Pitt right in front of her. Nine times out of ten, he said, the woman would strike up a conversation with him even if he hadn't said a word.
Recent research by Nowak and Rauh delves deeper into the psychology behind the attraction. Their study argues that people perceive attractive avatars as more credible and more similar to themselves than unattractive ones. The physical choices, then, have implications for acceptance in a social circle.
Interestingly, this may be a cultural phenomenon. Whilst the research conducted by Shasta Johansen was inconclusive, her review of the literature suggests that people from different regions may be more of less inclined to be persuaded by virtual attractiveness in e-commerce situations. Phew, that's a relief. There's still hope for an ugly online army.
If you, like me and others, are convinced that 2006 will be the year of the avatar, check out this history from iMedia Connection to get informed.
