The psychological functions of avatars and alt(s): A qualitative study

Gilbert, Richard; Thadani, Vandana; Handy, Caitlyn; Andrews, Haley; Sguigna, Tristan; Sasso, Alex; Payne, Stephanie C.

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.11.007

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Many of these characters are imbued with deeper meanings, such as Herb's avatar John, inspired by the song Big bad John or Klaus's avatar Don Fulano (Spanish version of Joe Blow). One of the explanations of creating Other Avatars is that they may confer anonymity, which has been previously attributed to this category [13,35].…”

Section: The Other Avatar: Being Other Personasmentioning

confidence: 97%

Negotiating stereotypes of older adults through avatars

Carrasco

Baker

Waycott

et al. 2017

Proceedings of the 29th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction

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Virtual Avatars can bring opportunities for enjoyment, social participation and exploration of identities. However, the configuration of avatar creation software may marginalise some groups of users due to them reinforcing social stereotypes that privilege youth and beauty, rather than representing the broader variety of human identities. Older adults are one group who may be disadvantaged with respect to avatars as avatar studies have typically focused on younger users. Considering that older populations are growing and that their participation in virtual environments is increasing, it is timely to investigate older adults' preferences in relation to avatars. We conducted a study with 23 participants (70+ years old) to understand the representational requirements of older adults when creating a humanoid virtual avatar. Our findings demonstrate that older adults are negotiating ageing stereotypes when creating a virtual body. These negotiations of body appearances range from: the Actual Avatar that by mirroring the self suggests an acceptance of the ageing body; the Vibrant Avatar that is idealising the physical condition of the self; the Other Avatar, that aims to explore other identities; and the Companion Avatar that creates another persona as company. These findings highlight that older adults have specific representational requirements when designing virtual avatars. CCS CONCEPTS 1 • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in interaction design • Human-centered computing → Graphical user interfaces

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Section: The Other Avatar: Being Other Personasmentioning

confidence: 97%

Negotiating stereotypes of older adults through avatars

Carrasco

Baker

Waycott

et al. 2017

Proceedings of the 29th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In the context of using Second Life for social purposes, three functions of avatars as an expression of the individual’s “real world” identity have been identified (32). First, avatars can be utilized as a vehicle for engaging in a virtual world, whereby the individual’s representation of their true physical characteristics, and their real name, occupation, interests, etc., were conveyed via their avatar.…”

Section: Therapeutic Functions and Challenges Of Avatar Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

What Role Can Avatars Play in e-Mental Health Interventions? Exploring New Models of Client–Therapist Interaction

et al. 2016

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In the burgeoning field of e-mental health interventions, avatars are increasingly being utilized to facilitate online communication between clients and therapists, and among peers. Avatars are digital self-representations, which enable individuals to interact with each other in computer-based virtual environments. In this narrative review, we examine the psychotherapeutic applications of avatars that have been investigated and trialed to date. Five key applications were identified (1) in the formation of online peer support communities; (2) replicating traditional modes of psychotherapy by using avatars as a vehicle to communicate within a wholly virtual environment; (3) using avatar technology to facilitate or augment face-to-face treatment; (4) as part of serious games; and (5) communication with an autonomous virtual therapist. Across these applications, avatars appeared to serve several functions conducive to treatment engagement by (1) facilitating the development of a virtual therapeutic alliance; (2) reducing communication barriers; (3) promoting treatment-seeking through anonymity; (4) promoting expression and exploration of client identity; and (5) enabling therapists to control and manipulate treatment stimuli. Further research into the feasibility and ethical implementation of avatar-based psychotherapies is required.

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“…experimentation with different identities) or malicious (e.g. increasing in-game profit, cheating) [15,16,23,9]. In our work, we find evidence for these motivations -sockpuppets in discussion communities sometimes support each other, and beyond malicious uses, some uses of sockpuppetry may be benign (e.g.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 52%

An Army of Me

Kumar

Cheng

Leskovec

et al. 2017

Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on World Wide Web

114

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In online discussion communities, users can interact and share information and opinions on a wide variety of topics. However, some users may create multiple identities, or sockpuppets, and engage in undesired behavior by deceiving others or manipulating discussions. In this work, we study sockpuppetry across nine discussion communities, and show that sockpuppets differ from ordinary users in terms of their posting behavior, linguistic traits, as well as social network structure. Sockpuppets tend to start fewer discussions, write shorter posts, use more personal pronouns such as "I", and have more clustered ego-networks. Further, pairs of sockpuppets controlled by the same individual are more likely to interact on the same discussion at the same time than pairs of ordinary users. Our analysis suggests a taxonomy of deceptive behavior in discussion communities. Pairs of sockpuppets can vary in their deceptiveness, i.e., whether they pretend to be different users, or their supportiveness, i.e., if they support arguments of other sockpuppets controlled by the same user. We apply these findings to a series of prediction tasks, notably, to identify whether a pair of accounts belongs to the same underlying user or not. Altogether, this work presents a data-driven view of deception in online discussion communities and paves the way towards the automatic detection of sockpuppets.

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The psychological functions of avatars and alt(s): A qualitative study

Cited by 22 publications

References 18 publications

Negotiating stereotypes of older adults through avatars

Negotiating stereotypes of older adults through avatars

What Role Can Avatars Play in e-Mental Health Interventions? Exploring New Models of Client–Therapist Interaction

An Army of Me

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