Contact: jjchandlumich.edu

1
Online I am We
Summary
The effects of computer game characters
(avatars) on womens body image depends on how
close they feel to their avatar. Women who feel
close to their avatar assimilate their avatars
body into their body image. The opposite is true
for those who do not feel close to their avatars.
This has implications for understanding the
effects of media exposure and close relationships
more generally.
Contrast and assimilation effects in virtual
environments

• Study Two
• Awareness of informations influence should
  attenuate the effect observed in Study 1 (Strack,
  Schwarz, Bless, Kübler Wänke, 1993).
• Manipulated the salience of the avatars body by
  changing the order in which people made ratings
  for the self and avatar.
• Method
• 394 online gamers (174 women) with same-gender
  avatars took part in the survey.
• Estimated their height and weight
• Described their avatar
• Completed the modified IOS
• Modified BIA-Os for themselves and their avatar
  (randomly assigned)

• Including an Avatar as a part of the self
• Computer game characters are often thought of as
  extensions of the self (e.g. Turkle , 1995) or as
  something that can be included within the self
  (Myers Biocca, 1992)
• However, as individuated agents, avatars can also
  serve as targets of comparison.
• If the phrase including the other in the self
  can be taken literally, the degree of closeness
  that people feel to an avatar should predict
  whether the avatar is included in their self
  concept

• Conclusions
• For women, feeling overlapped leads to
  assimilation effects when estimating their body
  size prior to thinking of an avatar (Studies 1
  2).
• Drawing attention to the avatars body may
  attenuate this effect (Study 2)
• These findings suggest that the degree to which
  people include media figures as a part of their
  self determines their influence
• More generally it may be appropriate to treat
  media figures (particularly avatars) as
  relationship partners
• Including the other in the self should predict
  assimilation effects in other kinds of
  relationships as well
• Limitations
• Avatar bodies were not randomly assigned, nor was
  the feeling of closeness. People might simply
  identify more with avatars who have similar
  bodies to themselves.
• The effect is only observed in women and it is
  not clear why. It may be that women pay more
  attention to the bodies of their avatars or are
  more concerned about their own body image

Avatar

• Method
• 386 online gamers (67 women) with same-gender
  avatars took part in the survey.
• As a part of a larger questionnaire, participants
  completed
• ?a version of the Inclusion of Other in the Self
  scale (IOS Aron et al., 1991)
• ?the Body Image Assessment for Obesity Scale
  (BIA-O Williamson et al, 2000)
• ?randomly assigned to complete a version of the
  BIA-O referring to their avatar or their ideal
  body
• ?estimated their own height and weight

Self
Study 1 Results
Study 2 Results

• There was no relationship between avatar body
  size, overlap, and actual body size prior to
  thinking about their avatars body.
• For women, there was a relationship between
  avatar body size, overlap, and body size after
  after bringing an avatars body to mind, ß
  .596, t (386) 2.14, p lt.05
• This effect was not observed for men.
• One reason this may be the case is that men are
  less concerned with the body image of their
  avatar, F (1, 313) 22.35, p .000.

• Again, for women there is a relationship between
  avatar body overlap and body size after thinking
  about their avatar ß .280, t (394) 2.75, p
  lt.001
• The contrast effect is attenuated somewhat for
  women who report low overlap and think of their
  avatars body first ß -.229, t (394) 1.95, p
  .052
• Again, avatar body size does not predict weight
  prior to thinking of an avatar.

Contact jjchandl_at_umich.edu