Designing the Virtual SelfHow Psychological Connections to Avatars May Influence Education-Related Outcomes of Use

Rabindra Ratan & Béatrice Hasler

The ShanghAI LecturesA Large-scale International Field Study

http://shanghailectures.org

The ShanghAI LecturesA Large-scale International Field Study

Avatar Design Choices

• Default avatar (n = 77)• Customized avatar (n = 41)• Personalized avatar (n = 36)

Total number of participants: N = 155 (120 male, 35 female)

Avatar Design

• Default avatar

Definition:Generic avatar; no design choices made by the user

Avatar Design

• Avatar Customization

Definition:The user changes the avatar’s appearance by choosing different attributes (gender, hair style, clothing…)

Avatar Design

• Avatar Personalization

Definition:The user creates an avatar that resembles his/her “real-life” appearance.

Measuring “Connection to Avatars”

1. Self-Presence- Proto (body) SP- Extended (identity) SPx

Self-Presence Questionnaire (Ratan & Hasler, 2010)http://sites.google.com/site/selfpresenceinfo/self-presence-questionnaire

2. Avatar Personality SimilarityPsychological genderx

Diekman & Eagly’s (2000) measure of masculinity/femininity ratings applied to self and avatar

Education-Related Outcome Measure

• Satisfaction with Group Work Processx

5 items taken from Suh’s (1999) Performance Perception Questionnaire

Results (1/3)

• Avatar personalization and customization facilitate identity-level connections to avatars (extended self-presence)

• Only personalization facilitates body-level connections to avatars (proto self-presence).

• Implication: Virtual worlds could be designed to influence identity/body-level connections through avatar design options

Results (2/3)

• Extended self-presence and avatar personality similarity are more strongly correlated (pos) for default than for customized avatars.– i.e., avatar customization reduces psychological

similarity between the user and avatar

Results (3/3)

• Avatar personality similarity and extended self-presence are positively related to group process satisfaction.

• Implication: Virtual worlds could be designed to induce group process satisfaction by encouraging these avatar connections

Conclusion

• Avatar design options matter for education-related outcomes of virtual world use

Thank you!

Béatrice Hasler & Rabindra Ratanhbeatrice@idc.ac.il raratan@gmail.com