When you go online and look at any Facebook group page or any gaming forum, you'll see that people have reinvented themselves as tiny little avatars. These can be in the form of a cartoon character or really any object or thing. It's a way of telling the world who we really want to be, as being online allows us total freedom to reinvent ourselves. In the real world, we make decisions every day before we go out the door on how we're going to look. We may choose a certain style, a piece of clothing or jewellery, we may choose to have tattoos or piercings. All of these things we believe will add something to the person that wears them. Unfortunately, in real life, we can only change our physical appearance to a certain degree. We cannot grow taller. But in the online world, we can completely reinvent ourselves and be the person we were always meant to be.

Real Me vs Fake Me

Since people have been able to use online avatars there are researchers waiting in the wings to look into why people make these particular choices. Why do we choose to be the avatars that they are? Once we are these “symbol-people” do we behave differently than normal personas? And how easy is it for us to flip between one and the other, the fantasy and reality?

On a basic level people choose avatars because we think they have properties that we lack. Perhaps by having avatars, we are able to finally express our deep seated and hidden desires to be the ideal being, a better, stronger, faster, more good looking and more intelligent version of ourselves. A better version of ourselves.

Does This Avatar Make Me Look Fat?

All in all it makes perfect sense that we want to create a more perfect public image of our existing seves. This is known as the “compensation effect.” If for instance, a player is playing Second Life or World of Warcraft, and they are in reality slightly overweight, then they will create a more idealized avatar which will be taller and thinner. Likewise people who suffer from depression or have low self-esteem, tend to create avatars with enhanced confidence and that are more gregarious.

Researchers have found that there is a strong connection between the game being played and how immersed we are, and as a result how connected we are to the game world. The greater the connection, the more the player feels that the avatar is a proper representation of themselves. Interestingly enough, researchers have discovered that if a player creates an avatar that's fairly similar to themselves in real life, then the link between the two will be strongest even if the player goes on to change many of the avatars attributes. In some ways this represents the change that cannot take place in the real, and yet is so easy to manufacture with a couple of clicks of a mouse.

My Ugly Real Life Twin

One thing is certain though, and that is that game developers recognise the importance of allowing players to become whatever they wish to be in the form of the avatar. By letting this happen, the game becomes much more appealing as the player is essentially playing with his ego, in the form of an idealised being that’s the representation of his avatar. Within the game format, a player is letting the Avatar live out the life of his or her fantasy. Another question pops up, which is, once the player has adopted an avatar then how does the avatars appearance affect the player's gameplay and how do these players interact with other players who are also masquerading as avatars?

But My Avatar Told Me To Do It

There’s a field of psychological research that's called “self-perception theory” and it was formulated by social psychologists during the 1960s. The theory stipulates that when we observe ourselves, we use that information to make inferences about our moods or attitudes. This is directly opposite to the idea that our attitudes are affecting our behaviour. An example might be someone who throws themselves out of an airplane with parachute will think “I'm skydiving so I'm the type of person who's looking for thrills.” It turns out that we first perceive what we're doing or what we look like, and then only after that do we draw conclusions about our identity or our attitudes. Also we might continue to behave in a certain manner which is in line with our presumed identity. 

In an experiment about behaviour and advertising, a number of subjects were placed in a room with a fake mirror. This mirror would display an avatar which was a representation of the subject. This avatar would be one of three things; ugly, normal or attractive. After the subjects viewed themselves as an avatar, they were encouraged to go and chat with someone and ask simple questions. Researchers were interested to see whether the avatar would affect the behaviour of the subject.

My Avatar Is In Control

The study showed that the attractiveness of an avatar had a huge effect on how its owner behaved. Those who were shown themselves as an attractive avatar stood closer to the other person during the chat and also disclosed a lot more personal detail about themselves. They were more confident and outgoing than the subjects who were led to believe they were ugly by being shown as ugly avatars. In some ways this is no different than how we behave in the real world in that we make observations and assertions about someone on meeting them and then we act according to our perceived expectations. We're not even conscious that we're doing it. It’s called the “Proteus Effect” and is named after the Greek God who could change his physical form at will. Essentially it means that people will unconsciously conform to the expectations of that advertised experience.

The Proteus Effect

The Proteus Effect shows that players will change their ingame behaviour depending on how they think other players are expecting them to behave. This means that avatars are not simply ornaments. By taking on an avatar, they are altering the identity of the user. What's more interesting, is it's not even necessary to have an audience in order for this behaviour to change. An assumed audience of one is enough.

Mummy, Am I Me Or An Avatar?

This leads to the question as to whether the avatar affects behaviour beyond the internet and whatever game we happened to be playing? In truth, marketers and advertising people have recognised for some time that the avatar’s power extends well beyond the gaming platform. An example would be having a player's avatar holding up a fizzy drink and suggesting they buy it. Studies show that if people are showing a fictitious brand of fizzy drink and a doctored photo of themselves or their avatar holding it, then they're much more likely to express a preference to that brand, just because they have seen a representation of themselves holding it. It's a similar story with a brand of clothing. If a player’s avatar is dressed in a certain manner, then the players themselves will remember their clothing brand. You'll find lots of advert- games around the web which are essentially product placements thinly disguised as web games. Nevertheless, if a young player is allowed to customise their avatar within this game, then there is a much greater likelihood that the kids will remember the product.

Follow Your Avatar Into The Deep End

But the use of avatars isn't necessarily all negative, or just for the purpose of businesses enriching themselves. Psychiatrists for sometime have used mental visualisation as a means of treating phobias and other social disorders. For example, someone who has an inordinate fear of swimming or deep water might be coaxed into taking a swimming class simply because they have seen their own avatar swimming. This has proved to be a very successful technique in treating those with phobias and helping them to control them.

My Avatar Chose Me

The next time you're playing an online game and get the offer of the possibility to customise your avatar, then think about, not just how your avatar looks and what that says about you, but also be aware that the look you choose will unconsciously affect how you behave. Weird stuff indeed!