The Contextual and Collaborative Dimensions of Avatar in Real-Time Decision Making

Abstract

Technology, combined with the changing nature of work, has created a new environment where individuals have significant options for communication, interaction and real-time decision making. An interesting research question is how various contextual and collaborative approaches influence human decision makers through interface manipulations. We focus on Second Life (SL), a virtual world with media rich context in which avatars interact and make real-time decisions. Even though the decisions in virtual worlds currently have limited impact and consequences, we make the case that it is a good laboratory to study real-time decision making. We study how a sense of presence and a sense of context can be achieved through SL. We design an experiment to study the contextual dimensions of the avatars in SL, user behaviour and perceptions about SL. The results of this study support an assertion that when individuals feel that SL is useful in a real-time decision-making context, it can influence the SL experience and together with SL experience can impact the attitude towards use of SL in real-time context.