This project focuses on online social interactions using Second Life avatars and survey results from pictures of real people to better understand personhood in both mediums. The internet has opened up a new medium for identity portrayal. The goal for our project was to answer the question: how do our online perceptions compare to the way we perceive people in real life through first impressions? To answer this question, our group designed an experiment in which each group member created a sim with unique, stereotypical characteristics on Second Life, a virtual online world. We recorded everything, including where they were most approached, who started the conversations, and what the conversations revolved around. After conducting the Second Life portion of our experiment for a week, our group sent out a survey with a picture that we felt represented each of our sims’ stereotypes and a short bio about them and their interests. The surveys asked questions that required surveyors to make conclusions about the subject with minimal information provided, similar to that would be provided or found through their online identities. We then compared the results from Second Life to our survey to see if people make the same judgements about others on Second Life that they do through a real photo. The internet has allowed individuals to portray themselves in a multitude of ways, and through our experiment we were able to analyze the way portrayals of different people are perceived online versus in real life.
Attached are three documents that include our survey which helped us inference real life perceptions, the results of the survey, and then a document with a compilation of all of our results and conclusions.
Our group conducted an experiment comparing online perceptions of specific characters on Second Life to the perceptions of our peers using pictures of real people.