Assignment 10: Avatars and Plasticity

Yee and Bailenson’s 2007 article, “The Proteus Effect: the Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior” analyzes the plasticity of self-representations in online game spaces. Examining self-representation in CMC environments, Yee and Bailenson claim that there is a wealth of evidence that supports the claim that avatars change the way individuals interact with one another. In support of this hypothesis, Yee and Bailenson claim that both behavior confirmation and self-perception theory offer valuable insight. Defining behavior confirmation as “the process whereby the expectations of one person (typically referred to as the perceiver) cause another person (typically referred to as the target) to behave in ways that confirm the perceiver’s expectation” Yee and Bailenson state that the perceiver’s behavior causes a change in the target’s behavior. Additionally, Yee and Bailenson note that, in accordance with the self-perception theory and deindividuation theory, it is possible for avatars to change how individuals behave, independent of how others perceive them. Daryl Bem’s Self-Perception Theory (1972) claims that individuals develop attitudes by observing their behavior and concluding what attitudes must have caused them. Similarly, Yee and Bailenson, in what they call the Proteus Effect, posit that individuals conform to the behavior that they believe others would expect them to have. Additionally, Yee and Bailenson outline the similarities and differences between the Proteus Effect and the SIDE model. Significantly, in distinction from the SIDE model, Yee and Bailenson claim that the Proteus Effect “operates” when the user is alone because the “self-perception theory is not predicated on the actual presence of other people but simply that a person evaluates him or herself from a third-person perspective.”
In assessing the validity of the Proteus Effect, specifically, examining whether the avatar of my choice affected the way I behaved in the game, I initially decided to play Second Life. After many failed attempts at running the Second Life application, however, I decided to experiment with Everquest. Unfortunately, I was also unable to download the application for Everquest. Despite my inability to play an online multi-player game, having read the literature regarding gender in online spaces, I feel that the choice of an avatar does play some role in the way one plays an online game. Though Yee and Bailenson claim that their Proteus Effect operates even when the user is alone, I feel that individuals will change in accordance with their avatar only in the presence of other individuals.