It's not easy trying to be one of the guys: The effect of avatar attractiveness, avatar gender, and purported user gender on the success of help-seeking requests in an online game

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dc.contributor.authorWaddell, T. Franklinen
dc.contributor.committeechairIvory, James Deeen
dc.contributor.committeememberWaggenspack, Beth M.en
dc.contributor.committeememberMagee, Robert G.en
dc.contributor.departmentCommunication Studiesen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:36:52Zen
dc.date.adate2012-06-06en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:36:52Zen
dc.date.issued2012-04-30en
dc.date.rdate2012-06-06en
dc.date.sdate2012-05-14en
dc.description.abstractPrevious research has found that users' interactions with others in online environments are often guided by the same rules and stereotypes we apply in our everyday lives. However, fewer studies have used virtual worlds as an experimental setting for the systematic examination of how avatar appearance and offline identity affect the outcome of users' actual interactions. This online field experiment measured the effect of avatar attractiveness, avatar gender, purported user gender, and favor size on the rate at which users received help across 2,300 separate user interactions. In addition, the main study's avatar gender, purported user gender, and favor size manipulations were replicated with a human avatar condition with 761 participants to examine whether trends for these factors' effects were similar with human avatars. In the main study, attractive avatars generally received more help than less attractive avatars. However, purported female users were helped less frequently than purported male users when represented by avatars that were either male or less attractive. Trends in the human avatar condition were similar to those observed in the main study. Implications for avatar-mediated communication and the persistence of sex roles in virtual environments are discussed.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Artsen
dc.identifier.otheretd-05142012-184457en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05142012-184457/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/32777en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartWaddell_Thomas_F_D_2012.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectavatarsen
dc.subjectvirtual worldsen
dc.subjectonline behavioren
dc.subjectgender rolesen
dc.subjectcomputers are social actorsen
dc.titleIt's not easy trying to be one of the guys: The effect of avatar attractiveness, avatar gender, and purported user gender on the success of help-seeking requests in an online gameen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineCommunication Studiesen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Artsen

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