ARE YOU YOURSELF IN VIRTUAL WORLD? AN EXAMINATION OF THE 'USER-AVATAR' GAP IN SECOND LIFE

摘要

3D virtual worlds are fast-growing Internet-based simulated environments in which users can interact not only with each other, but with products and services provided by businesses and individuals. To participate in a virtual world a computer user must create an avatar which can be described as "a pictorial representation of a human in a chat environment" or as "a representation of the user as an animated character in virtual worlds." In virtual worlds such as Second Life the avatar mediates the interaction between the product/service and the business; hence, it is reasonable to argue that the product/service must of fer value for the consumer represented by the avatar in the virtual world. Hemp (2006) suggests that the avatar can represent a distinctively different "shadow" consumer that can influence its creator's purchase of real-world products and conceivably make its own real-world purchases in the virtual world. Thinking of an avatar as a 'shadow' consumer implies that the avatar's behavior is guided by certain personality traits, which may be the same as or different to those of its creator. Given that the avatar and the creator may exhibit different personality traits and that personality traits explain behavioral tendencies which are important to consider when crafting marketing strategies, the primary objective of this study is therefore to determine whether avatars indeed exhibit different personality traits than their creators.