my recent articles |
| Gender-bending avatars inspire less trust |
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5 July 2007, for New Scientist In his 1970's gender-bending phase, David Bowie would have made a pretty dubious computer avatar, a new study suggests. The study reveals that androgynous digital personas (avatars) are perceived as less trustworthy than ones that are clearly either male or female. It also seems that people typically extend this impression to the person behind the avatar too. The results hint that avatar design and behaviour may have a range of unforeseen psychological influences and that such virtual personas need to be carefully designed to make the right impression, the researchers argue.As people increasingly interact through 3D virtual worlds like Second Life, meeting with friends, building communities and even shopping, they spend more time controlling an avatar – a computerised representation that stands for them. They also spend more time interacting with the other avatars that people have chosen to represent themselves virtually. Read the rest of the article on New Scientist's website. |