Today in Second Life: come stand by me with Dr. Nick Yee
Researcher of the Day: Dr. Nick Yee , research scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center & Stanford University, California US, focusing his studying personal space and ethical issues in Second Life.
Dr. Nick Yee together with Jeremy N. Bailenson, Mark Urbanek, Francis Chang, and Dan Merget. collected data from avatars in order to explore whether social norms of gender, interpersonal distance (IPD), and eye gaze transfer into virtual environments even though the modality of movement is entirely different (i.e., via keyboard and mouse as opposed to eyes and legs). The results showed that:
Male-male dyads have larger interpersonal distance than female-female dyads.
Mmale-male dyads maintain less eye contact than female-female dyads
decreases in interpersonal distance are compensated with gaze avoidance as predicted by the Equilibrium Theory.
Nick Yee asked his undergraduate students to use avatars in Second life and to record the physical position of anyone standing nearby. The findings revealed that female avatars protect their personal space less than male ones, a sex difference that reflects behavior in the real world. Yee says he decided against having his students interact with other users, however. "That would have changed things with our institutional [ethical] review board," he told New Scientist. "We would probably have had to get consent from the users involved." Yee also believes that the ethics of experimenting in virtual worlds is open to negotiations.
Second Life event of the Day with Dr. Nick Yee: Watch Metanomics on NMC Campus in Second Life.
Relevant Publications by Dr.Nick Yee:
Yee, N. (2006). The Demographics, Motivations and Derived Experiences of Users of Massively-Multiuser Online Graphical Environments. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.
Yee, N. (2001). The Norrathian Scrolls: A Study of Everquest (version 2.5), [website], viewed 17 September 2008 http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/demographics.html
This post is dedicated to Ido Steinberger, the youngest DiGRA ISRAEL Researcher
Dr. Nick Yee together with Jeremy N. Bailenson, Mark Urbanek, Francis Chang, and Dan Merget. collected data from avatars in order to explore whether social norms of gender, interpersonal distance (IPD), and eye gaze transfer into virtual environments even though the modality of movement is entirely different (i.e., via keyboard and mouse as opposed to eyes and legs). The results showed that:
Male-male dyads have larger interpersonal distance than female-female dyads.
Mmale-male dyads maintain less eye contact than female-female dyads
decreases in interpersonal distance are compensated with gaze avoidance as predicted by the Equilibrium Theory.
Nick Yee asked his undergraduate students to use avatars in Second life and to record the physical position of anyone standing nearby. The findings revealed that female avatars protect their personal space less than male ones, a sex difference that reflects behavior in the real world. Yee says he decided against having his students interact with other users, however. "That would have changed things with our institutional [ethical] review board," he told New Scientist. "We would probably have had to get consent from the users involved." Yee also believes that the ethics of experimenting in virtual worlds is open to negotiations.
Second Life event of the Day with Dr. Nick Yee: Watch Metanomics on NMC Campus in Second Life.
Relevant Publications by Dr.Nick Yee:
Yee, N. (2006). The Demographics, Motivations and Derived Experiences of Users of Massively-Multiuser Online Graphical Environments. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.
Yee, N. (2001). The Norrathian Scrolls: A Study of Everquest (version 2.5), [website], viewed 17 September 2008 http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/demographics.html
This post is dedicated to Ido Steinberger, the youngest DiGRA ISRAEL Researcher