Assignment 10: Why are Avatars All Ano?

I’m really not one to play videogames of any kind. But, after taking this course and INFO 515 and hearing all the talk about Second Life, I was interested to try it out. I chose to play Second Life and there was a good amount I learned from this experience.

I chose one of the basic avatars, the City Chic girl, and I didn’t alter anything about her. I found it really interesting that of the first 12 avatars one could choose from, they were all thin and tall. They were pretty versions of several cultural types. There were no short, fat avatars to start out with, only pretty, skinny, black, white, Latino and Asian avatars. From the start of my Second Life experience, the options were affecting how I was going to interact in the space. It’s as if they were forcing me to be more attractive in Second Life to facilitate more interaction. I felt as though the creators of Second Life expect lonely, non-social people to use their game, and so they help them along by initially giving them a sexy or really pretty avatar.

Since the avatars are all good looking and tall—the specific characteristic Lee and Bailenson (2007) studied, there were definitely similarities between “The Proteus Effect” study and my experience. I definitely walked closer to the other avatars and I definitely wanted to facilitate conversation, but I don’t think I took those actions solely because I had a good-looking avatar, I think because I was in Second Life for an assignment, and not for free enjoyment, I also was doing those things. Additionally, I didn’t have the option to have a short, fat avatar (I didn’t explore the options to alter my avatar within the different world, so this is strictly based on the initial avatar choices) so, it’s possible that if my avatar wasn’t as good-looking I would have acted differently within Second Life.

As the Lee and Bailenson say, the term the Proteus Effect means “an individual’s behavior to conform to their digital self-representation independent of how others perceive them.” Without the option for avatars with different body types, which in my opinion is what leads to lower self-esteem and less confidence, there’s no way to tell if I would or wouldn’t have conformed to my digital self-representation in Second Life.


Below is a picture of three examples of girl avatars in Second Life, just so you can fully understand what I mean.