title: The unbearable likeness of being digital: the persistence of nonverbal social norms in online virtual environments.
abstract: Every day, millions of users interact in real-time via avatars in online environments, such as massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). These online environments could potentially be unique research platforms for the social sciences and clinical therapy, but it is crucial to first establish that social behavior and norms in virtual environments are comparable to those in the physical world. In an observational study of Second Life, a virtual community, we collected data from avatars in order to explore whether social norms of gender, interpersonal distance (IPD), and eye gaze transfer into virtual environments even though the modality of movement is entirely different (i.e., via keyboard and mouse as opposed to eyes and legs). Our results showed that established findings of IPD and eye gaze transfer into virtual environments: (1) male-male dyads have larger IPDs than female-female dyads, (2) male-male dyads maintain less eye contact than female-female dyads, and (3) decreases in IPD are compensated with gaze avoidance as predicted by the Equilibrium Theory. We discuss implications for users of online games as well as for social scientists who seek to conduct research in virtual environments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA. nyee@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yee
authors.forename: Jeremy N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Bailenson
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Urbanek
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Merget
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012919:Social Behavior; D014584:User-Computer Interface