Avatars and emotional engagement in asynchronous online communication.
The notion that an avatar can elicit a sense of emotional involvement or connection on the part of a user in asynchronous online communication was explored through a pair of content analyses of a popular online question-and-answer bulletin board. In the first study, questions accompanied by an avatar not only received more answers than questions without an avatar, but the answers were more likely to be characterized by expressions of empathy. In the second study, a preference for answering questions accompanied by an avatar was found to be associated with interpersonal, altruistic motives for answering questions. Results are discussed in terms of presence and alternative explanations, as well as practical implications.
Taylor
Laramie D
LD
Communication Department, University of California Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA. lartaylor@ucdavis.edu
D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D012938:Social Perception; D014584:User-Computer Interface