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Self‐Representations in Immersive Virtual Environments 1
Author(s) -
Bailenson Jeremy N.,
Blascovich Jim,
Guadagno Rosanna E.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00409.x
Subject(s) - representation (politics) , psychology , similarity (geometry) , virtual representation , self representation , identity (music) , virtual reality , social psychology , mental representation , human–computer interaction , cognitive psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , cognition , aesthetics , humanities , art , image (mathematics) , neuroscience , politics , political science , law
This experiment varied whether individuals interacted with virtual representations of themselves or of others in an immersive virtual environment. In the self‐representation condition, half of the participants interacted with a self‐representation that bore photographic resemblance to them, whereas the other half interacted with a self‐representation that bore no resemblance to them. In the other‐representation condition, participants interacted with a representation of another individual. The experimental design was a 2 (Participant Gender) × 3 (Agent Identity: high‐similarity self‐representation vs. low‐similarity self‐representation vs. other representation). Overall, participants displayed more intimacy‐consistent behaviors for representations of themselves than others. Implications of using immersive virtual environment technology for studying the self are discussed.