Week 5
Lecture
Avatars → A digital representation of a human user that facilitates interaction with other
users, entities or the environment.
In a time with only analogue information, avatars did not exist. Digital information →
information can be turned into 0’s and 1’s. Digital representation means that it stands for
something, avatars are a representation of human users. This doesn’t mean they have to look
like the human user, it can for example be a cat.
How much agency do we have about an avatar (how much control)? There is always a
computer behind it, so we don’t have full control. Avatars are not just something that exists,
they rather are about interaction, a crucial concept. As an academic we have to understand
the underlying concepts.
Proteus-effect → comes from Stanford.
1. Do our self-presentations online (as avatars) change how we behave online?
If our avatar is a cat, does that change how we behave online? The most likely answer
on this is yes.
2. Theoretical background:
Behavioral confirmation: what we expect from somebody with whom we
interact will affect how this person behaves, and that will affect how WE
behave.
Self-perception theory: generally thought that we have a certain attitude and
behave according to our attitude → it could be the fact that we observe our own
behaviour and form an attitude AFTERWARDS.
Deindividuation: in certain contexts we are stripped off our personal
characteristics and rely on the available cues.
Study set-up for the proteus-effect → two experiments were conducted:
Participants got avatars that vary in attractiveness or height, and have to interact with a
confederate stranger. It was assessed how close participants got to this stranger and how much
they disclosed, and how unfairly they treated the strangers.
1
,When the avatar was more attractive, participants were closes and self-disclosed more. When
having a taller avatar, participants treater the stranger more unfair.
How are avatars perceived?
Agency
Whether or not an agency is perceived to be human, operationalized as perception of
whether the digital representation is controlled by a human or not.
Anthropomorphism
The perception or assignment of human traits or qualities to entities that may or may
not be human, this is usually triggered by human like appearance. When the degree is
higher, avatars are judged more positively, have a higher involvement, social presence
and communication satisfaction and have a greater social influence.
Realism
Perception that something could realistically or possibly exist in a non-mediated
context. Cartoonlike/phantasy vs. photo realistic/real world. Subdimensions are:
1. Form realism
2. Behavioral realism
3. Communicative realism
Influence of avatar sex/gender:
- Gendered avatars elicit gender stereotypes
- Female avatars subject to more sexual harassment
- Sexualized avatars associated with self-objectification → people look at themselves as
objects.
Avatars race and ethnicity. Avatar race activated racial stereotypes, but → evidence also for
reduction of racial bias when embodying a non-white avatar, probably through identification
with avatar.
Avatars and self-representation:
- Identity expression, accurate or idealized
- Identity exploration, trying out other identities
- Identity deception, protective/self-enhancing/malicious
2
,Avatars are a topic for research and a method for understanding communication processes.
They are going beyond boundaries. The design avoids stereotypes and biases and focuses on
long-term effects outside virtual environments.
Half of this lecture was presented by a guest speaker, and the information he gave is not
required to study for the exam. Therefore, I left my notes of this part of the lecture out. 😊 The
notes below are mandatory for the exam!
Digital agents might not look like anything, and are for example chatbots. What features may
have an influence on what’s happening?
Embodiment, something like a body that is visible. Depending on task and
interaction.
Physical appearance (anthropomorphism).
Verbal behavior (verbosity → speaking a lot, is positive).
Non-verbal behavior: self-touching gestures, illustrative gestures, looking at the
interactant improves agent’s evaluation.
This is not per se applicable to voice assistants.
Role of the user when interacting with agents:
Gender: women prefer agents with positive non-verbal behaviour
Agents not useful for the elderly
Personality characteristics predicting FtF contact most promising
Humans as social beings cannot prevent themselves from reacting to social cues even if they
come from an artificial identity.
Voice-assistants
Interface: speech, most important. And this is quite unique!
Interactive.
Internet-connected
Expandable by third-party developers
This becomes more and more intrusive in our life, and of course raises some issues like the
security of the data generated by these voice assistants and the privacy.
Future uses should support the elderly or visually impaired people. Real-time translation
would be amazing.
3
, Social bots → A computer algorithm that automatically produces content and interacts with
humans on social media trying to emulate and possibly alter their behavior.
Literature
Nowak, K. L., & Fox, J. (2018). Avatars and computer-mediated communication: A review of
the definitions, uses, and effects of digital representations. Review of Communication
Research, 6, 30-53., 6, 30–53. http://doi.org/10.12840/issn.2255- 4165.2018.06.01.015
When communicating in a computer-mediated environment, users often rely on some form of
avatar → a digital representation that symbolizes the self in the interaction. This can vary
from a simple name to a 3D character. Users are able to manipulate, control, embody and
interact via avatars. User make judgments and attributions based on the avatars, avatars can
influence behavior and can be perceived as messages of themselves. The characteristics can
be determined by several factors like user preferences, social norms and technological
affordances. Differences in these representations are notable given that avatars have been
shown to influence beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in a variety of contexts and types of
communication. This article wants to provide an overview of avatar research.
There are various conceptualizations of the term avatar. Several scholars use the term
without defining it, or employ inconsistent definitions. The absence of agreement on
conceptual definitions, inconsistent operationalization, and appropriate manipulation ensures
that scientists have had difficulty replicating results even when they are trying to test the same
concepts and theories with the same protocols. Among articles that discussed the origins there
was agreement that avatar originated in Hinduism → is adapted from the Sanskrit word for
descent. In this context an avatar is a human embodiment of a deity or a spirit which allows
them to experience earth from the perspective. Another commonality across most definitions
is that an avatar represents the user in a digital environment. Most definitions state or imply
that the purpose of an avatar is to enable the user to experience and interact within the spaces
of digitally mediated worlds and with other uses. In virtual worlds and video games, avatars
provide a form of embodiment that enables navigation through virtual spaces. In some
platforms, avatars can also facilitate more complex actions including nonverbal
communication via gestures, body posture, proxemics, and even haptics. Scholars have also
employed several different conceptualizations.
1. Many scholars specified a more conservative definition that either explicitly or
implicitly required an avatar to have a graphical embodiment or visual representation.
4
