Avatar-driven self-disclosure: The virtual me is the actual me

Highlights

• The effect of avatar-self similarity on self-disclosure was examined.

• Self-awareness, self-presence, and identifiability are mediators.

• Avatar similarity increases self-disclosure via self-awareness and self-presence.

• Avatar similarity decreases self-disclosure via identifiability.

Abstract

Considering the importance of self-disclosure in building relationships and bonds, it is vital to investigate how self-disclosure is affected by avatars utilized in many online communities. In this study, we tested a research model that explores how perceived avatar-self similarity affects self-disclosure via different theoretical constructs such as self-awareness, self-presence, and identifiability. The research model was empirically tested with data from a web-based survey of 209 Second Life users. Results revealed that avatar similarity impacts self-disclosure but with varying effects, depending on how it is mediated by variables of identifiability, self-awareness and self-presence. Specifically, appearance similarity affects homophily, which heightens self-awareness. This results in increased feelings of self-presence, which positively affects self-disclosure. Homophily also has the effect of heightening perceptions of identifiability, which decreases self-disclosure. Implications and applications are discussed.

Introduction

The avatar is a digital representation through which the user interacts with and relates to others in the virtual environment. Widely used in online games, virtual malls, online messaging and forums, the avatar has been found to affect users’ perception and behavior. In online shopping, for example, avatar sales agents increase satisfaction with the retailer (Holzwarth, Janiszewski, & Neumann, 2006) and avatar appearance can influence their users’ behavior (Yee, Bailenson, & Ducheneaut, 2009).

In domains of computer-aided design and engineering simulation, a general direction has been to build objects more realistically. Advancements in techniques of 3-D modeling, for instance, have resulted in avatars and objects of virtual environments that are true to life and open to a high degree of personalization. The freedom to customize one’s avatar unveiled a range of possibilities for the individual to create a digital self that is representative of one’s true self. However, research has indicated users prefer avatars that are similar to their own gender, type (i.e., anthropomorphic; Nowak & Rauh, 2009), as well as appearance (Messinger et al., 2008). The effect of self-similar avatars on users has also been demonstrated. Generally, users who created self-similar avatars experienced greater identification (Trepte & Reinecke, 2010), more intense game enjoyment (Downs & Sundar, 2011), heightened self-awareness (Vasalou, Joinson, & Pitt, 2007), and in violent games, greater aggression (Eastin, 2006, Williams, 2011). They also experienced greater private self-awareness (Vasalou et al., 2007), which is the cognisance of the personal aspects of the self.

In this study, we focus on a relatively unexplored area: avatar-user similarity and its effect on self-disclosure. Self-disclosure is communication behavior that is crucial to relationship development and is of both theoretical and practical importance. Yet, despite its significant role in constructing the kind of relationships individuals have with each other (Greene et al., 2006, Harvey and Omarzu, 1997), very little is known about the effect of avatar similarity on self-disclosure. This study is novel in exploring this important but under-researched area.

Specifically, we draw on self-awareness theory to explain when or how avatar use leads to increased or decreased self-disclosure. Examining the potentially complex mechanisms involved will enable us to test how avatars as a specialized artifact of user presence affect users using a theoretical lens. This study will explore how different mechanisms of avatar selection are associated with a user’s self-disclosure behavior. We posit that avatar similarity should have a significant effect on self-disclosure, but the effects would vary depending on how it is mediated by other psychological variables. On the one hand, avatar similarity should increase feelings of identifiability (i.e., the state where one’s identity is known to others), leading to decreased self-disclosure. On the other hand, avatar similarity is expected to heighten self-awareness and self-presence, which should, in turn, positively affect self-disclosure as people are likely to be attuned to private aspects of the self and personal moods and feelings.

In a practical sense, this study can also inform practitioners of possible modifications of avatars to achieve desired behaviors among users. Clarifying when or how the avatar has a positive or negative impact on self-disclosure would allow them to fully harness the advantages of avatars in various computer-mediated environments, such as e-businesses, in which voluntary self-disclosure from consumers is a key for success.

The study used a web-based survey administered to 209 users of Second Life, a virtual world that allows people to socialize, as well as create and trade virtual property. Second Life gives great freedom to users to create and customize avatars, making it ideal to explore avatar effects. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we examined our model and tested research hypotheses.