Effect of Virtual Avatars On Real-Life Behavior

Betsy Carroll writes "The Stanford research group on virtual teams discusses how the appearance of one's avatar in virtual worlds has an effect on real life behavior in an NPR interview. The researcher they speak with focuses on the concept of vicarious reinforcement for changing behavior. They also talk a bit about identity issues surrounding the avatar and the 'real' physical self."

Comments

Look no further than LARPers

[dave562]

I'm sure that the stereotype is familiar enough to /.ers. Most of us know those people who have been playing roleplaying games for so long that their personality becomes the character that they play. There are the Vampire players who really believe that they are walking undead. There are the D&D players who eventually get into Wicca and other "majik" kind of stuff to the point where they believe that they can cast spells and talk to spirits. I think it's basic psychology that anybody who spends any significant amount of time pretending to be someone else will eventually manifest behavorial changes.

Re:RTFA!!!

[story645]

Not quite priming-which is basically a memory task where you learn to associate a word/object with another, kind of like associating the content of an array cell with it's index (A[0]=B, you teach yourself to think B when you see 0). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology)
"I'm going to be modded funny" doesn't 'cause any associative links to be made (which is how psychological priming works-it's Cognitive-Behavioral where you learn to associate your mental image with your wishes and behave based on the new associations) in the brain of the mod-either he mods you up or he doesn't.