Beauty in the eye of the beholder? Attractiveness in a virtual world

Shu-Sha Angie Guan; Kaveri Subrahmanyam; Kevin Linares; Roy Cheng

doi:10.5817/CP2015-2-2

Beauty in the eye of the beholder? Attractiveness in a virtual world

Vol.9,No.2(2015)

Shu-Sha Angie Guan Kaveri Subrahmanyam Kevin Linares Roy Cheng

https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2015-2-2

How to Cite:

Guan, S.-S. A., Subrahmanyam, K., Linares, K., & Cheng, R. (2015). Beauty in the eye of the beholder? Attractiveness in a virtual world. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 9(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2015-2-2

PDF

Abstract

The current study examines whether traditional offline gender biases regarding physical attractiveness and status transfer to Second Life (SL), a virtual world where residents can easily manipulate the appearance and status of avatars (i.e., graphical representations of the self). Participants (N = 312, 60.58% female, M_age = 29.77, SD = 10.53) reported on demographics, SL usage, and rated the attractiveness of female and male avatars manipulated along physical attractiveness (high vs. low) and status (high vs. low). Mixed measures ANCOVAs were modeled separately for the female avatars and male avatars with within-subjects factors (avatar characteristics: physical attractiveness and status) and between-subject factors (participant characteristics: sex, and intensity of SL usage), while controlling for participant age. Consistent with offline norms, female avatars high in physical attractiveness were rated as more attractive, regardless of status. Participants rated male avatars high in physical attractiveness as more attractive if they were high in status compared to those low in status. We also found opposite-sex preferences and moderations by participant age and SL usage on avatar attractiveness ratings. The results suggest the continuity of offline gender norms and effect of in-world experience on perceptions of avatar appearance.

Keywords:
Virtual worlds; avatars; attractiveness; status; gender norms

Author biographies

Shu-Sha Angie Guan

Shu-Sha Angie Guan, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Child and Adolescent Development at California State University, Northridge. She is interested in the social, psychological and physical implications of digital media among diverse populations, including ethnic minorities and immigrants. She can be reached at angie.guan(at)csun.edu

Kaveri Subrahmanyam

Kaveri Subrahmanyam, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at California State University, Los Angeles and Associate Director of the Children’s Digital Media Center @ Los Angeles. She studies the cognitive and social implications of interactive media use and is currently researching the daily use of interactive media among youth as well as the academic and cognitive implications of multitasking. Dr. Subrahmanyam has published several research articles on youth and digital media and co-edited a special section on interactive media and human development for Developmental Psychology (2012) and a special issue on social networking for the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology (2008). She is the co-author (with David Smahel) of Digital Youth: The Role of Media in Development (Springer, 2011). She can be reached at ksubrah(at)calstatela.edu

Kevin Linares

Kevin A. Linares, MA, is a doctoral student in the department of Human and Community Development at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is interested in understanding the social and economic implications of military service for the adaptation process of children of immigrants. He can be reached at klinares(at)illinois.edu

Roy Cheng

Roy Cheng, MSc/MA, is a researcher at Lieberman Research Worldwide. He manages an array of international quantitative and qualitative projects to gain consumer insights for strategic business development. His work focuses on toys and games, entertainment, and banking/finance. He can be reached at rcheng(at)lrwonline.com

References

Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469-480.

Bailenson, J. N., & Beall, A. C. (2006). Transformed social interaction: Exploring the digital plasticity of avatars. Avatars at Work and Play, 1-16.

Baker-Sperry, L., & Grauerholz, L. (2003). The pervasiveness and persistence of the feminine beauty ideal in children's fairy tales. Gender & Society, 17, 711-726. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243203255605

Baumann, S. (2008). The moral underpinnings of beauty: A meaning-based explanation for light and dark complexions in advertising. Poetics, 36(1), 2-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2007.11.002

Behm-Morawitz, E. (2013). Mirrored selves: The influence of self-presence in a virtual world on health, appearance, and well-being. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 119-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.023

Blinka, L., & Mikuška, J. (2014). The role of social motivation and sociability of gamers in online game addiction. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 8(2), article 6. https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2014-2-6

Boellstorff, T. (2008). Coming of age in Second Life: An anthropologist explores the virtually human. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Buss, D. M. (1989). Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 12(1), 1-49. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00023992

Buss, D. M., Shackelford, T. K., Kirkpatrick, L. A., & Larsen, R. J. (2001). A half century of mate preferences: The cultural evolution of values. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63, 491-503. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2001.00491.x

Cunningham, M. R., Barbee, A. P., & Pike, C. L. (1990). What do women want? Facialmetric assessment of multiple motives in the perception of male facial physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 61-72. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.1.61

Dehn, D. M., & Van Mulken, S. (2000). The impact of animated interface agents: a review of empirical research. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 52, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1006/ijhc.1999.0325

Eagly, A. H., Ashmore, R. D., Makhijani, M. G., & Longo, L. C. (1991). What is beautiful is good, but...: A meta-analytic review of research on the physical attractiveness stereotype. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 109-128. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.110.1.109

Feingold, A. (1992). Good-looking people are not what we think. Psychological bulletin, 111, 304-341. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.111.2.304

Furnham, A., & Alibhai, N. (1983). Cross-cultural differences in the perception of female body shapes. Psychological Medicine, 13, 829-837. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700051540

Furnham, A., Swami, V., & Shah, K. (2006). Body weight, waist-to-hip ratio and breast size correlates of ratings of attractiveness and health. Personality and Individual Differences 41, 443-454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.02.007

Giard, F., & Guitton, M. J. (2010). Beauty or realism: The dimensions of skin from cognitive sciences to computer graphics. Computers in Human Behavior 26, 1748-1752. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.07.001

Gilbert, R., Thadani, V., Handy, C., Andrews, H., Sguigna, T., Sasso, A., & Payne, S. (2014). The psychological functions of avatars and alt (s): A qualitative study. Computers in Human Behavior 32, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.11.007

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday Anchor.

Grammer, K., & Thornhill, R. (1994). Human (Homo sapiens) facial attractiveness and sexual selection: the role of symmetry and averageness. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 108, 233-242. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7036.108.3.233

Greenfield, P. M., Gross, E. F., Subrahmanyam, K., Suzuki, L. K., & Tynes, B. (2006). Teens on the Internet: Interpersonal connection, identity, and information. In R. E. Kraut, M. Brynin, & S. Kiesler (Eds.), Computers, Phones, and the internet: Domesticating information technology (pp. 185-200). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Greenfield, P. M., & Subrahmanyam, K. (2003). Online discourse in a teen chatroom: New codes and new modes of coherence in a visual medium. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24, 713-738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2003.09.005

Guitton, M. J. (2012). Living in the hutt space: Immersive process in the star wars role-play community of second life. Computers in Human Behavior 28, 1681-1691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.04.006

Harrison, K. (1997). Does interpersonal attraction to thin media personalities promote eating disorders? Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 41, 478-500. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838159709364422

Henss, R. (1991). Perceiving age and attractiveness in facial photographs. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21, 933-946. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1991.tb00451.x

Herring, S. (1993). Gender and democracy in computer mediated communication. Electronic Journal of Communication, 3(2).

Hickling, E. J., Noel, R. C., & Yutzler, F. D. (1979). Attractiveness and occupational status. The Journal of Psychology, 102, 71-76. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1979.9915096

Hilbert, M. (2011). Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies, and statistics. Women's Studies International Forum, 34, 479-489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2011.07.001

Huh, S., & Williams, D. (2010). Dude looks like a lady: Gender swapping in an online game. In W. S. Bainbridge (Ed.), Online worlds: Convergence of the real and the virtual (pp. 161-174). London, UK: Springer.

Jones, B. C., Little, A. C., Penton-Voak, I. S., Tiddeman, B. P., Burt, D. M., & Perrett, D. I. (2001). Facial symmetry and judgements of apparent health: Support for a “good genes” explanation of the attractiveness–symmetry relationship. Evolution and Human Behavior, 22, 417-429. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1090-5138(01)00083-6

Kendall, L. (1998). Meaning and identity in "cyberspace": The performance of gender, class, and race online. Symbolic Interaction, 21, 129-153. https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1998.21.2.129

Khan, R., & De Angeli, A. (2009). The attractiveness stereotype in the evaluation of embodied conversational agents. In T. Gross, J. Gulliksen, P. Kotze, L. Ostreicher, P. Palanque, R. O. Prates, & M. Winckler (Eds.), Human-computer interaction-INTERACT 2009 (Vol. 5726, pp. 85-97). Berlin: Springer.

Lamb, C. S., Jackson, L. A., Cassiday, P. B., & Priest, D. J. (1993). Body figure preferences of men and women: A comparison of two generations. Sex Roles, 28, 345-358. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289890

Langlois, J. H., Kalakanis, L., Rubenstein, A. J., Larson, A., Hallam, M., & Smoot, M. (2000). Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological bulletin, 126, 390-423. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.3.390

Lehdonvirta, M., Nagashima, Y., Lehdonvirta, V., & Baba, A. (2012). The stoic male: How avatar gender affects help-seeking behavior in an online game. Games and Culture, 7(1), 29-47. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412012440307

Lenhart, A. (2010). Social media & mobile internet use among teens and young adults: Pew Research Center.]

Lennon, S. J. (1988). Physical attractiveness, age, and body type. Home Economics Research Journal, 16, 195-203. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077727X8801600304

Linares, K., Subrahmanyam, K., Cheng, R., & Guan, S. S. A. (2011). A Second Life within Second Life: Are virtual world users creating new selves and new lives? International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, 1(3), 50-71. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcbpl.2011070104

Lo, S.-K. (2008). The impact of online game characteristics outward attractiveness and social status on interpersonal attraction. Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 1947-1958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2007.08.001

Lomanowska, A. M., & Guitton, M. J. (2012). Virtually naked: Virtual environment reveals sex-dependent nature of skin disclosure. PloS one 7(12), e51921. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051921

Low, B. S. (1979). Sexual selection and human ornamentation. Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior, 1979, 462-487.

Merola, N., & Pena, J. (2009). The effects of avatar appearance in virtual worlds. Journal for Virtual Worlds Research, 2(5).

Messinger, P. R., Ge, X., Stroulia, E., Lyons, K., Smirnov, K., & Bone, M. (2008). On the relationship between my avatar and myself. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 1(2), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v1i2.352

Nowak, K. L., & Rauh, C. (2005). The influence of the avatar on online perceptions of anthropomorphism, androgyny, credibility, homophily, and attraction. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11, 153-178. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.tb00308.x

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2008). Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Palomares, N. A., & Lee, E. J. (2010). Virtual gender identity: the linguistic assimilation to gendered avatars in computer-mediated communication. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29, 5-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X09351675

Penton-Voak, I. S., Jacobson, A., & Trivers, R. (2004). Populational differences in attractiveness judgements of male and female faces: Comparing British and Jamaican samples. Evolution and Human Behavior, 25, 355-370. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2004.06.002

Perlini, A. H., Bertolissi, S., & Lind, D. L. (1999). The effects of women's age and physical appearance on evaluations of attractiveness and social desirability. The Journal of social psychology, 139, 343-354. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224549909598390

Perrett, D. I., Lee, K. J., Penton-Voak, I., Rowland, D., Yoshikawa, S., Burt, D. M., . . . Akamatsu, S. (1998). Effects of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness. Nature, 394, 884-887. https://doi.org/10.1038/29772

Pompper, D. (2010). Masculinities, the metrosexual, and media images: Across dimensions of age and ethnicity. Sex roles, 63, 682-696. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9870-7

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the horizon, 9(5), 1-6.

Principe, C. P., & Langlois, J. H. (2013). Children and adults use attractiveness as a social cue in real people and avatars. Journal of experimental child psychology, 115, 590-597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2012.12.002

Qiu, L., Lin, H., & Leung, A. K. (2012). Cultural differences and switching of in-group sharing behavior between an American (Facebook) and a Chinese (Renren) social networking site. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1-16.

Rich, M. K., & Cash, T. F. (1993). The American image of beauty: Media representations of hair color for four decades. Sex Roles, 29, 113-124. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289999

Rosen, L. D., Chang, J., Erwin, L., Carrier, L. M., & Cheever, N. A. (2010). The relationship between "textisms" and formal and informal writing among young adults. Communication Research, 37, 420-440. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650210362465

Singh, D. (2006). Universal allure of the hourglass figure: an evolutionary theory of female physical attractiveness. Clinics in Plastic Surgery, 33, 359-370.

Smahel, D., Blinka, L., & Ledabyl, O. (2008). Playing MMORPGs: Connections between addiction and identifying with a character. CyberPsychology & Behavior 11, 715-718. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2007.0210

Smahel, D., & Subrahmanyam, K. (2007). “Any girls want to chat press 911”: Partner selection in monitored and unmonitored teen chat rooms. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10, 346-353. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2006.9945

Sorokowski, P. (2008). Attractiveness of blonde women in evolutionary perspective: studies with two Polish samples. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 106, 737-744.

Steen, F. F., Greenfield, P. M., Davies, M. S., Tynes, B., Vorderer, P. E., & Bryant, J. E. (2006). What went wrong with The Sims Online: Cultural learning and barriers to identification in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. In P. Vorderer & J. Bryant (Eds.), Playing video games: Motives, responses, and consequences (pp. 307-324). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Subrahmanyam, K., & Greenfield, P. M. (2008). Media symbol systems and cognitive processes. In S. L. Calvert & B. J. Wilson (Eds.), The Handbook of Children, Media and Development. Boston, MA: Blackwell.

Subrahmanyam, K., Smahel, D., & Greenfield, P. M. (2006). Connecting developmental constructions to the internet: identity presentation and sexual exploration in online teen chat rooms. Developmental Psychology, 42(3), 395. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.42.3.395

Swami, V., & Barrett, S. (2011). British men's hair color preferences: An assessment of courtship solicitation and stimulus ratings. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 52, 595-600. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2011.00911.x

Swami, V., Furnham, A., & Joshi, K. (2008). The influence of skin tone, hair length, and hair colour on ratings of women's physical attractiveness, health and fertility. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 49, 429-437. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2008.00651.x

Swami, V., & Tovee, M. J. (2005). Female physical attractiveness in Britain and Malaysia: A cross-cultural study. Body Image, 2, 115-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2005.02.002

Tapscott, D. (1998). Growing up digital: The rise of the net generation. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies.

Terdiman, D. (2007, July 10, 2012). Counting the real "Second Life' population. Retrieved from: http://news.cnet.com/Counting-the-real-Second-Life-population/2100-1043_3-6146943.html

Thornhill, R., & Gangestad, S. W. (2006). Facial sexual dimorphism, developmental stability, and susceptibility to disease in men and women. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 131-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.06.001

Thornhill, R., Gangestad, S. W., Miller, R., Scheyd, G., McCollough, J. K., & Franklin, M. (2003). Major histocompatibility complex genes, symmetry, and body scent attractiveness in men and women. Behavioral Ecology, 14, 668-678. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arg043

Townsend, J. M., & Wasserman, T. (1997). The perception of sexual attractiveness: Sex differences in variability. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 26, 243-268. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024570814293

Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Vasalou, A., & Joinson, A. N. (2009). Me, myself and I: The role of interactional context on self-presentation through avatars. Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 510-520. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.11.007

Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication research, 23, 3-43. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365096023001001

Waynforth, D. (2001). Mate choice trade-offs and women's preference for physically attractive men. Human Nature, 12, 207-219. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-001-1007-9

Yates, S. J. (1997). Gender, identity and CMC. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 13, 281-290. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2729.1997.00031.x

Yee, N. (2006a). The demographics, motivations, and derived experiences of users of massively multi-user online graphical environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 15, 309-329.

Yee, N. (2006b). Motivations for play in online games. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9, 772-775. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2006.9.772

Yee, N., & Bailenson, J. (2007). The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self Representation on Behavior. Human Communication Research, 33, 271-290. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2007.00299.x

Yee, N., Bailenson, J. N., & Ducheneaut, N. (2009). The Proteus effect implications of transformed digital self-representation on online and offline behavior. Communication Research, 36, 285-312. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650208330254

Yee, N., Bailenson, J. N., Urbanek, M., Chang, F., & Merget, D. (2007). The unbearable likeness of being digital: The persistence of nonverbal social norms in online virtual environments. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10, 115-121. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2006.9984

Zhou, T. (2011). Understanding online community user participation: a social influence perspective. Internet Research, 21, 67-81. https://doi.org/10.1108/10662241111104884

Metrics