What does your gaming Avatar say about you?
Monday, November 30th, 2009(DailyComet.com) – The characters that video-game users choose for themselves, their avatars, can affect their thoughts and emotions in those virtual environments, whether it’s Mario or Luigi or the colors of a football uniform, according to research by a University of Texas communication-studies professor.
In two similar experiments, assistant professor Jorge Pena found that gamers using negative avatars, such as those wearing black cloaks, exhibited aggressive and antisocial behaviors in team exercises. The study, “The Priming Effects of Avatars in Virtual Settings,??? will be published in the December issue of Communication Research, a national publication.
The first experiment randomly assigned either black- or white-robed avatars to gamers playing “Jedi Knight II.??? The second experiment assigned gamers roles as Ku Klux Klan members or physicians in a virtual museum. The control group was assigned transparent figures.
Participants in both experiments were asked to write a story about an ambiguous picture or were asked to make decisions with virtual team members dealing with problems that arose during the game.
Subjects using the black-robed and KKK avatars consistently exhibited negative, aggressive and antisocial behaviors, Pena said.
“What’s interesting here is not only did using the avatar in the dark uniform affect a negative attitude and point to individual problems, but also showed less group cohesion,??? he said.
Pena said that when the participants using the KKK and black-robed avatars were asked to describe an ambiguous picture, their stories dealt with murder, revenge and scorn and did not incorporate any relationships, as opposed to those who used the doctor-like or white-robed avatars.
The effects were automatic and usually unconscious to the user, Pena said.
“Situations queue people’s behaviors, and they go with the flow,??? he said.
“It’s more than just in video games,??? he said, adding that people can be primed negatively in a variety of environments.
Pena said similar studies of the effects of video-game avatars have found that primed behaviors can be carried beyond the virtual environment into the user’s daily life.
He said some games, such as “EverQuest??? and “World of Warcraft,??? depend on the dynamics of communication and said his research may help game designers be aware of the effects of avatars on those dynamics.
Nicholas Merola, a communication-studies graduate student who co-wrote the study with Pena, said it’s important for game designers to have the knowledge from the study, especially when designing games for younger players, who can build on their cooperation skills through such games.
Coleman Stewart, a UT sophomore majoring in linguistics, said he has been a gamer for 12 years. He plays online multiplayer games, such as “Counter-Strike,??? up to four hours a day.
Avatars ,and what they may say about a gamer’s real-world character, are a common talking point in the gaming world, said Stewart, who did not participate in Pena’s study.
Stewart said that in “Counter-Strike,??? which is a first-person shooter game, there are terrorist and counterterrorist avatars. Stewart said gamers in both groups tend to be equally negative in their communication with other players.
“Mostly, it’s just people being negative about almost everything, people who mess up in the slightest, people who do things wrong, people that get in other people’s way, etcetera,??? he said.
Stewart said that in “World of Warcraft,??? which he also plays, there are obvious distinctions between good guys, the Alliance, and bad guys, the Horde.
The trash talk involves calling gamers who side with the Horde “antisocial, mouth-breathing rejects that live in their mom’s basement,??? Stewart said. “But some people, myself included, are of the opinion that it really doesn’t matter what faction you are??? because everyone can be a jerk.
“The choice of avatar is not the only way you can judge someone,??? Stewart said. “I’ve met some really nice undead rogues and some really annoying Draeni mages.???