Avatar Gender Research Articles

Gender and racial price disparities in the NFT marketplace

This paper empirically investigates the causal impact of avatar gender and race on transaction prices within the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) marketplace. The impetus behind this investigation is grounded in the observation that NFT investors frequently represent a younger, wealthier, and politically progressive demographic, which raises the question of whether this marketplace is less susceptible to prejudice and social bias. Contrary to such expectations, our analysis reveals pronounced gender and racial disparities in NFT prices. Specifically, female CryptoPunks avatars are transacted at a 36.8% lower price compared to their male counterparts (i.e., avatars with similar image attributes), while black CryptoPunks avatars are transacted at a 30.7% lower price compared to their white counterparts. We further identify that avatar features linked to high-tech or higher education attributes (e.g., 3D glasses, Virtual Reality glasses, Nerd glasses) can effectively counter these disparities. We verify the causal patterns revealed in the NFT dataset with a controlled experiment, where NFT buyers are randomly shown the comparable avatars that exhibit variations in race or gender, enabling us to evaluate the impact of these attributes on buyer choices and willingness-to-pay. The experiment confirms the gender (male) and race (white) price premium in the NFT market and suggests that buyers exhibit a preference for NFT avatars resembling their personal identity. We offer insights into policy strategies aimed at promoting racial and gender equity within the NFT marketplace.

Manipulating avatar age and gender in level-2 visual perspective taking

Visual perspective taking (VPT) represents how the world appears from another person’s position. The age, group status and emotional displays of the other person have been shown to affect task performance, but tasks often confound social and spatial outcome measures by embedding perspective taking in explicitly social contexts or theory-of-mind reasoning. Furthermore, while previous research has suggested that visual perspective taking may be impacted by avatar characteristics, it is unknown whether this is driven by general group processing or a specific deficit in mentalizing about outgroups, for example, children. Therefore, using a minimally social task (i.e., the task was not communicative, and acknowledging the “mind” of the avatar was not necessitated), we examined whether avatar age and avatar gender affect performance on simpler (low angular disparity) and more effortful, embodied (high angular disparity) perspective judgments. Ninety-two participants represented the visuospatial perspectives of a boy, girl, man, or woman who were presented at various angular disparities. A target object was placed in front of the avatar and participants responded to the orientation of the object from the avatar’s position. The findings suggest that social features of visuospatial perspective taking (VSPT) are processed separately from the fundamental spatial computations. Further, Level-2 VSPT appears to be affected by general group categorization (e.g., age and gender) rather than a deficit in mentalizing about a specific outgroup (e.g., children).

The effect of multimodality on customers' decision-making and experiencing: A comparative study

The primary objective of this article is to present the findings of an experimental study on the use of a human-like “naturalistic” avatar (of both genders) for information presentations. The primary goal is to investigate how users' frame of mind, purchasing behavior, and satisfaction are affected by being presented with information by a naturalistic avatar that lacks expressive capabilities. Two different types of information presentations were developed and empirically tested on 48 participants, namely: (i) two dimensional static graphical and textual information presentation and (ii) non-expressive naturalistic avatar. For this comparative research study, a simplified version of the user experience model that was used in our earlier research (the EUX-DM) was selected to serve as the measurement model. Participants' perceived values of the measured qualities were found to be independent of both their own and the naturalistic avatar's gender, and the non-expressive avatar had a positive effect and a stronger encouragement on participants' intention to purchase, usage attitude, and satisfaction than other types of information presentations.

Interview with an avatar: Comparing online and virtual reality perspective taking for gender bias in STEM hiring decisions.

Virtual perspective taking can reduce unconscious bias and increase empathy and prosocial behavior toward individuals who are marginalized based on group stereotypes such as age, race, or socioeconomic status. However, the question remains whether this approach might reduce implicit gender bias, and the degree to which virtual immersion contributes to behavioral modulation following perspective taking tasks is unknown. Accordingly, we investigate the role of virtual perspective taking for binary gender using an online platform (Study 1) and immersive virtual reality (Study 2). Female and male undergraduates performed a simulated interview while virtually represented by an avatar that was either congruent or incongruent with their own gender. All participants rated a male and a female candidate on competence, hireability, likeability, empathy, and interpersonal closeness and then chose one of these two equivalently qualified candidates to hire for a laboratory assistant position in the male dominated industry of information technology. Online perspective taking did not reveal a significant influence of avatar gender on candidate ratings or candidate choice, whereas virtual reality perspective taking resulted in significant changes to participant behavior following exposure to a gender-incongruent avatar (e.g., male embodied as female), such that men showed preference for the female candidate and women showed preference for the male candidate. Although between-group differences in candidate ratings were subtle, rating trends were consistent with substantial differences in candidate choice, and this effect was greater for men. Compared to an online approach, virtual reality perspective taking appears to exert greater influence on acute behavioral modulation for gender bias due to its ability to fully immerse participants in the experience of (temporarily) becoming someone else, with empathy as a potential mechanism underlying this phenomenon.

A Novel Method of Exploring the Uncanny Valley in Avatar Gender(Sex) and Realism Using Electromyography

Despite the variety of applications that use avatars (virtual humans), how end-users perceive avatars are not fully understood, and accurately measuring these perceptions remains a challenge. To measure end-user responses more accurately to avatars, this pilot study uses a novel methodology which aims to examine and categorize end-user facial electromyography (f-EMG) responses. These responses (n = 92) can be categorized as pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral using control images sourced from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). This methodology can also account for variability between participant responses to avatars. The novel methodology taken here can assist in the comparisons of avatars, such as gender(sex)-based differences. To examine these gender(sex) differences, participant responses to an avatar can be categorized as either pleasant, unpleasant, neutral or a combination. Although other factors such as age may unconsciously affect the participant responses, age was not directly considered in this work. This method may allow avatar developers to better understand how end-users objectively perceive an avatar. The recommendation of this methodology is to aim for an avatar that returns a pleasant, neutral, or pleasant-neutral response, unless an unpleasant response is the intended. This methodology demonstrates a novel and useful way forward to address some of the known variability issues found in f-EMG responses, and responses to avatar realism and uncanniness that can be used to examine gender(sex) perceptions.

Computer role-playing games: player motivations, preferences, and behavior

"In recent years, computer role-playing games have changed the way we spend our free time. Traditional games have been increasingly replaced by digitized productions, and technology has made it easier to access videogames on multiples devices. Online games bring users together in a fantasy world in which they design avatars, manifesting their creativity and employing gaming strategies. This study analyzed Romanian gamers’ behaviors and perceptions of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (henceforth MMORPGs); by employing focus groups and a survey, the authors aimed to map preferences and habits of users in terms of gender. We found that users are not likely to engage in stereotypical activities in creating and using their avatars within the games, nor do they design female avatars solely for visual pleasure, but rather for opportunistic reasons. Moreover, the research subjects did not think of choosing female avatars as a safeguard for advancing through in-game levels, but rather consider other variables, such as hard work, skills, or strategy, as important to succeed. Keywords: role-playing games, gaming behavior, gamer preferences, gender-swapping, avatar gender."

RETRACTED ARTICLE: How avatar gender may influence users’ intention to use the second life environment: an empirical study

The main aim of this survey is to analyze the user’s intention to use the second life environment based on the influence of avatar gender. The use of virtual environments to transform individuals’ modern technology usage has attracted special attention lately. The role of gender in virtual space has also been viewed as a contributor to modern technology use. This study examined the impact of avatar gender on users’ intention to use the second life (SL) environment in a university context. Two avatars of male and female characteristics were designed and used in a learning situation. A total of 74 SL users were involved in two learning sessions (with male–female avatars). A questionnaire was used to capture users’ perceptions of ease of use, attitude, usefulness, and behavioural intention to utilize the technology. SL users had positive intentions to use the environment for various learning purposes when provided with the preferred gender appearance. This study delivers insights into the dynamics of users’ learning behaviour when using male and female avatars in the SL environment. This study suggests that avatar gender can help stimulate users’ interaction with the activity, thus facilitating the learning process and building a sense of technology’s possibilities and limits.

How avatar gender may influence users intention to use Second Life environment: An empirical study

The use of virtual environments to transform individuals? use of modern technology has gained a special attention lately. The role of gender in the virtual space has also been viewed as a contributor to individuals? use of modern technology. This study investigated the impact of avatar gender on users? intention to use the Second Life (SL) environment in a university context. Two avatars of male and female characteristics were designed and used in the SL environment. A total of 74 SL users were involved in two learning sessions (with male female avatars). A questionnaire was used to capture users? perceptions of ease of use, usefulness, attitude, and behavioral intention to use the SL space. SL users had positive intentions to use the SL environment for various learning purposes when they are provided with the preferred gender appearance. Offering opposite gender characteristics can help stimulate users? interaction with the avatar, thus facilitating the learning process and building the sense of technology effectiveness.

Avatars of a Feather Flock Together: Gender Homophily in Online Video Games Revealed via Exponential Random Graph Modeling

Increasingly more scholars have regarded the virtual worlds of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) as a social laboratory, and have paid research attention to the online interactions between its large number of players. In the present study, we examine a widely observed real-life phenomenon gender homophily (i.e., people of the same gender flocking together) in this virtual context. Specifically, we investigate how collaboration networks in an MMOG ( Destiny ) are shaped by the adopted gender of the avatar characters. This focus is interesting, as avatar gender in video games is generally a choice that is less constrained than it is in real life. To investigate the effect of gender in online video games, while controlling for the effects of several confounding factors, we employed a technique called exponential random graph modeling . Mirroring how interpersonal relationships are often gendered in real life, and despite common phenomenon such as gender swapping, we found evidence supporting gender homophily in the MMOG environment.

Stereotype Threat in Virtual Learning Environments: Effects of Avatar Gender and Sexist Behavior on Women's Math Learning Outcomes.

Women in math, science, and engineering (MSE) often face stereotype threat: they fear that their performance in MSE will confirm an existing negative stereotype-that women are bad at math-which in turn may impair their learning and performance in math. This research investigated if sexist nonverbal behavior of a male instructor could activate stereotype threat among women in a virtual classroom. In addition, the research examined if learners' avatar representation in virtual reality altered this nonverbal process. Specifically, a 2 (avatar gender: female vs. male) × 2 (instructor behavior: dominant sexist vs. nondominant or nonsexist) between-subjects experiment was used. Data from 76 female college students demonstrated that participants learned less and performed worse when interacting with a sexist male instructor compared with a nonsexist instructor in a virtual classroom. Participants learned and performed equally well when represented by female and male avatars. Our findings extend previous research in physical learning settings, suggesting that dominant-sexist behaviors may give rise to stereotype threat and undermine women's learning outcomes in virtual classrooms. Implications for gender achievement gaps and stereotype threat are discussed.

Women Keep it Real: Avatar Gender Choice in League of Legends.

This article examines avatar gender choice within a competitive context in which avatar gender is not equivalent across functions. In data from the game League of Legends (n = 15,392) reflecting >5 million avatar gender choices, women were found to have stronger preferences for avatar gender consistency than men. Furthermore, women tended to choose female avatars at twice the available rate offered by the game, whereas men chose male avatars at a rate approximately the same as the proportion offered. These findings support the argument that women experience more pressure than men do to perform their gender identities overtly, even in competitive games where avatar choice is mostly functional and avatar gender is fixed within specific characters. A practical implication is that by offering a wider range of female avatar and character options, game designers could likely attract greater female audiences without a significant loss of male players.

An Explorative Study on the Virtual World: Investigating the Avatar Gender and Avatar Age Differences in their Social Interactions for Help-Seeking

This study investigates avatars’ gender and age differences in their help-seeking interactions in virtual worlds. Specifically, we conducted data collections from two popular help-supporting regions from Second Life, and performed two levels of analyses. We first examined the existence of the overall gender and age differences, and then compared and tested the detailed differences by creating three types of interaction networks based on avatar gender and avatar age, respectively. Overall, we found that the interaction networks of the same gender tended to be more centralized than the interaction networks with mixed genders. In addition, the interaction networks of the same age group tended to be more centralized than the interaction networks with mixed ages. We also found that old-aged avatars had significantly higher values than young-aged avatars in all measurement dimensions, indicating that old-aged avatars played more important roles in help-seeking interactions.

Interpersonal Affordances and Social Dynamics in Collaborative Immersive Virtual Environments: Passing Together Through Apertures.

An essential question in understanding how to develop and build collaborative immersive virtual environments (IVEs) is recognizing how people perform actions together. Many actions in the real world require that people act without prior planning, and these actions are executed quite successfully. In this paper, we study the common action of two people passing through an aperture together in both the real world (Experiment 1) and in a distributed, collaborative IVE (Experiment 2). The aperture's width is varied from too narrow to be passable to so wide as to be easily passable by both participants together simultaneously. We do this in the real world for all possible gender-based pairings. In virtual reality, however, there is potential for the gender of the participant and the gender of the self-avatar to be different. We also investigate the joint action for all possible gender-based pairings in the distributed IVE. Results indicated that, in the real world, social dynamics between gendered pairings emerged; male-male pairings refused to concede to one another until absolutely necessary while other pairings did not. Male-female pairings were most likely to provide ample space to one another during passage. These behaviors seemed not to appear in the IVE, and avatar gender across all pairings generated no significant behavioral differences. In addition, participants tended to require wider gaps to allow for passage in the IVE. These findings establish base knowledge of social dynamics and affordance behaviors within multi-user IVEs.

Exploring Stereotypical Perceptions of Female Players in Digital Gaming Contexts.

Gender stereotypes are still reported to exist in digital gaming contexts, despite the fact that participation of females is relatively equal to that of males. The current research explored a number of factors and their impact upon stereotypical perceptions and attitudes toward female players. This included avatar gender, gender identity by gaming context, as well as more general gender-role beliefs. We undertook two studies, each utilizing an online questionnaire targeted toward online players. Study 1 recruited online gamers (N = 489) and compared competence perceptions of players, which varied by player gender (male, female) and avatar gender (male, female), whereby four conditions were established. Overall, player competence was perceived to be highest when male avatars were used, specifically when female players were depicted in this way. Study 2 explored the relationships between male social identity and gender-role beliefs, with sexist attitudes in gaming, and whether this varied by gaming context (massively multiplayer online [MMO] vs. first-person shooter [FPS]). Male online gamers (N = 193) were recruited, of which 112 were MMO players, and 81 were FPS players. It was found that identifying as male social identity was not related to sexist attitudes in either gaming context. However, more general gender-role beliefs were related to sexist attitudes. The findings indicate that although certain stereotypes exist (e.g., competence perceptions), these are not necessarily harvested by players' identities within communities, but may derive through more operational functions such as avatar gender.

Do casual gaming environments evoke stereotype threat? Examining the effects of explicit priming and avatar gender

Despite relatively equal participation rates between females and males in casual gaming, females often report stigmatisation and prejudice towards their gaming competency within this sub-domain. Applying the theoretical framework of “stereotype threat”, this research examined the influence of explicit stereotype priming on females' casual gameplay performance and related attitudes. It also investigated whether the gender of the game avatar heightens susceptibility to stereotype threat. One hundred and twenty females were allocated randomly to one of four experimental conditions in a 2 (Condition: Stereotype threat, Control) x 2 (Avatar gender: Feminine, Masculine) between-subjects design. They completed a short gaming task and measures of social identity, competence beliefs, gameplay self-efficacy and self-esteem. Findings indicate that priming explicitly a negative gender-related stereotype did not appear to have a significant detrimental impact on gameplay performance or gameplay-related attitudes. Additionally, gameplay performance was not affected significantly by manipulating the gender of the gaming avatar. These findings suggest that, although females appear to be knowledgeable about negative gender-gaming stereotypes, these might not impact performance. Moreover, females tend not to endorse these beliefs as a true reflection of their gaming ability, representing a positive finding in view of the prevailing negative attitudes they face in gaming domains.

Investigating the impacts of avatar gender, avatar age, and region theme on avatar physical activity in the virtual world

This study proposed a research model to examine the impacts of avatar gender, avatar age, and location (region theme) on avatars' physical activity. Each construct was measured at two levels: male and female for avatar gender, young and old for avatar age, commercial transaction and help-supporting for region theme, and high-active and low-active for avatar physical activity. The model was tested on Second Life, one of the most popular virtual worlds. An advanced data collection technique was created and applied to gather large-scale behavior data from real virtual-world residents in Second Life. To test the model and hypotheses, both the main effects and detailed interaction effects of the three factors were analyzed. Overall, the data analysis results indicated that in general male avatars were more physically active than female avatars, young avatars were more physically active than old avatars, and avatars in commercial transaction regions (for buying and selling virtual goods) were more physically active than avatars in help-supporting regions (for seeking or offering help).

Sexing the Avatar

Abstract. The present study explored the influence of avatar appearance on cyber-harassment in a virtual world. Specifically, this research examined how avatar gender and sexualization were related to the experience of sex- and non-sex-related harassment. An international sample of Second Life users (N = 216) completed an online questionnaire about their avatar’s appearance and virtual world experiences. Objectification theory and the disinhibition effect were used as theoretical grounding for the study. Results revealed disparate virtual experiences for male and female avatars and indicated that avatar sexualization was related to experiences of cyber-harassment for female avatars. The implications of this research extend beyond virtual worlds like Second Life to other Web-based communication applications that utilize avatars.

When Mii Is Me

The present research examines the processes involved in the psychological and behavioral effects of avatar use. We offer and explore a new concept, avatar self-relevance, which potentially moderates avatar use effects and thus may help explain why such effects are augmented by using (compared with viewing) an avatar. Results from an experimental study suggest that avatar self-relevance after avatar use, as reflected by physiological responses to observing (without controlling) the avatar get beaten up, is higher for people who maintain a psychological connection to the avatar, while lower for people for whom the disconnection from the avatar is highly salient, with avatar gender consistency and an avatar-emotion connection contributing to the former and an avatar-body connection contributing to the latter. This research offers a middle ground between self-perception and priming-oriented explanations of the theoretical mechanisms involved in avatar use effects.

Leveling up on stereotype threat: The role of avatar customization and avatar embodiment

Digital games often benefit players, whether in learning, health, or simply entertainment, but some game design elements (e.g., avatars) potentially disadvantage certain social groups (e.g., women). To counteract such potential effects, we explore the moderating role of avatar self-relevance in avatar-induced stereotype threat effects. Specifically, we examine how avatar customization (i.e., designing an avatar) and avatar-body connection (i.e., the perception that the avatar is incorporated into body schema) interact with avatar gender to influence user’s post-game behavior in ways that conform to gendered stereotypes. In an experimental study (N=64, all female), participants completed a competitive math task after playing a digital sword-fighting game. For participants who customized an avatar and experienced low avatar embodiment, those who used male avatar performed better at the math task than those who used a female avatar. These findings extend our understanding of avatar use effects, especially as they relate to avatar self-relevance, avatar customization, avatar embodiment, and stereotype threat, thereby providing insights into the ways that digital games can be designed to maximize positive outcomes for players in a variety of meaningful contexts.

Psychological and Neurobiological Mechanisms of Pathological Internet Use

Background Studies on internet gaming disorders indicate that especially online role-playing games have a high addictive potential in particular in male adolescents. These games enable the parallel gaming of multiple users in online virtual worlds with or against each other via their graphical agent (avatar). Recent findings suggest online role-playing addicts to have a deficient self-concept. The latter's potential compensation by means of a higher identification with the own avatar might be an etiological factor in the development of an online role-playing game addiction. On a neurobiological level, especially the left Angular Gyrus (AG) seems to be associated with identification and empathy processes. An according fMRI-based study on long-term gamers of online role-playing games indicated increased brain activations in the left AG during the rating of personality traits referring to the avatar relative to self-referencing and the referencing of close others (Ganesh et al., 2011). However, the extent to which these results represent specific neurobiological mechanisms that are associated with self-concept deficits or a stronger identification with the own avatar in the development of online role-playing game addiction remains unknown to date. Methods N=16 addicted and n=17 regular gamers of online role-playing games (mean age=28 and 26 years, respectively) underwent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) while 1) completing a Giessen-Test (GT)-derived paradigm assessing participants’ concepts of self, ideal and avatar and 2) while viewing and evaluating images of the own person, the own avatar as well as unknown persons. Additionally, a questionnaire referring to the own body image and a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for the evaluation of the own as well as avatar's attractiveness, sympathy and gender identity were applied. Results Addicts of online role-playing games rated their body image, gender identity and social response (i.e. social popularity) significantly lower. Neurobiologically, they showed increased left AG activations during the reflection about their avatar (relative to their ideal and/or their self) compared to non-addicted gamers. Furthermore, within-group differences revealed left AG response during the perception of images showing their avatar (relative to images of themselves). In addition, addicted gamers had hypoactivations in the bilateral AG during the perception of images of their own person compared to the perception of unknown persons. The left-lateral AG hypoactivation positively correlated with the degree of the gender identity. Discussion In line with previous findings, our results indicate self-concept deficits in online role-playing game addicts and a stronger identification with the own avatar, which might neurobiologically be reflected in AG activations. The results could point towards problems in the formation of an own identity as a cause for online role-playing game addiction development. Longitudinal studies may shed light on these potentially causal relations.