Meeting others virtually in a day-to-day setting: Investigating social avoidance and prosocial behavior towards avatars and agents

Felnhofer, Anna; Kafka, Johanna Xenia; Hlavacs, Helmut; Beutl, Leon; Kryspin-Exner, Ilse; Kothgassner, Oswald D.

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.11.031

Cited by 38 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Avatars can trigger prosocial behavior in others (Felnhofer et al, 2018). Future studies could employ the present study's four avatar characteristics to examine which of them could trigger prosocial behavior in others.…”

Section: Research Limitations and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 96%

How avatars create identification and loyalty among online gamers

Teng

2019

INTR

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Purpose Online games are popular electronic commerce platforms in which gamers use avatars to interact with others. Avatar identification (the extent to which gamers regard avatars as an extension of themselves) is known to be related to online gamer loyalty. However, few studies have examined how avatars could be designed to enhance avatar identification and online gamer loyalty, indicating a gap. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to contextualize self-affirmation theory into online gaming contexts, identified key theoretical elements and examined how they are related to avatar identification and online gamer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach This study surveyed 1,348 massively multi-player online role-playing game players, and their responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings The analytical results indicate that irreplaceability within a team and avatar customization are positively related to unique avatar image, while avatar customization is positively related to positive avatar image. Moreover, avatar physical attractiveness and avatar ability to achieve are positively related to positive avatar image. Both unique and positive images of an avatar (as perceived by the user) are positively related to avatar identification, and further to online gamer loyalty. Originality/value This study proposes new constructs: irreplaceability within a team, avatar ability to achieve, unique avatar image and positive avatar image. Such new constructs provide insights to aid electronic commerce managers in avatar design, thus instilling gamer identification with avatars, and thus loyalty.

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Section: Research Limitations and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 96%

How avatars create identification and loyalty among online gamers

Teng

2019

INTR

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“…The perception of agency is core to experiencing machine partners as social entities, as compared to human partners. The suggestion that a digital body is controlled by a human (i.e., an avatar vs. being technologically autonomous agent) elicits stronger social influence effects (Fox, Ahn, et al, 2015), promotes more prosocial behavior (Felnhofer et al, 2018), and engenders greater sadness at social exclusion (Kothgassner et al, 2017). Stronger perceived behavioral realism of an agent (independent of its actual autonomy) engenders more positive agent evaluations and feelings of mutual awareness (von der Pütten et al, 2010) such that there would seem to be clear differences in how people would experience HMC-S with human-and machine-cued partners.…”

Section: Exploring Ontological-category Differences In Sexual Communimentioning

confidence: 99%

Cybersex with human- and machine-cued partners: Gratifications, shortcomings, and tensions.

Banks¹,

Ouytsel²

2020

Technology, Mind, and Behavior

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From social-network spambots and forensic chatbots to dating simulation games, sexual communication with machines is not uncommon in contemporary culture-however, it remains effectively a black-box phenomenon. There is little empirical research examining how sexual human-machine communication (HMC-S) is experienced, whether it is impactful, or whether it may be similar or different to human-human sexual communication. Advancing our understanding of those questions is vital in understanding the potential for machine partners to foster the health and welfare benefits, as well as the potential to have negative impacts. This study takes a first step in considering experiential parity or divergence by experimentally investigating 271 people's cybersex experience with a chat partner that was visually and textually cued as a human or a machine. Multimethod analysis suggests there may be no difference in gratifications from sex chat with ostensible machine versus human partners; however, participants seem to experience tensions between the gratifications and shortcomings of cybersex with machine-cued partners.

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“…Recent studies [ 13 , 29 ] show that exposure to a feared stimulus in virtual reality (VR) provokes levels of anxiety as well as physiological responses which are comparable to those induced by an exposure in vivo . Furthermore, experiences in VR influence emotional states and physiological responses in subsequent real-life interactions (e.g., subsequent emotional and physiological reactivity to real-life stressors; prolonged prosocial behavior) [ 6 , 14 , 15 ]. Additionally, there is a significant difference in the physiological activation between patients and healthy controls during exposure to a feared stimulus in VR (e.g., Felnhofer et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lack of research on efficacy of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents

Kothgassner

Felnhofer

2020

Neuropsychiatr

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SummaryAnxiety disorders are one of the most prevalent mental disorders in children and adolescents which may effectively be treated by several forms of exposure therapy. An emerging approach to exposure is virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET), but a literature search synthesis focusing specifically on the use of VRET in children and adolescents is still lacking. This systematic review sets out to provide an overview concerning VRET for the treatment of anxiety disorders in this age group. Four published trials covering an overall sample of 100 participants between the ages of 8 and 16 years were found during a systematic literature search and were included in the current review. Results reveal that participants show clinical improvements regarding anxiety symptoms after VRET. Nevertheless, the high potential of virtual reality as a tool for treating children and adolescents with anxiety disorders is contrasted by a considerable lack of controlled trials. Despite the evidence of VRET in adult samples, there is a need for more research with younger cohorts in order to be able to support this promising field of application.

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Meeting others virtually in a day-to-day setting: Investigating social avoidance and prosocial behavior towards avatars and agents

Cited by 38 publications

References 37 publications

How avatars create identification and loyalty among online gamers

How avatars create identification and loyalty among online gamers

Cybersex with human- and machine-cued partners: Gratifications, shortcomings, and tensions.

Lack of research on efficacy of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents

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