SGER: The Avatar-Self Relationship: An Exploratory Study of Identity Negotiation in Second Life

SGER：阿凡达与自我的关系：第二人生中身份协商的探索性研究

• 批准号: 0848692
• 负责人: Ulrike Schultze
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Southern Methodist University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-11-01 至 2010-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0848692&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SGER; Avatar; Self; Relationship; Exploratory

This research addresses the central question with respect to avatars in computer-generated virtual worlds: How does the user negotiate among the many possible relationships between the self and the avatar? Virtual worlds form an integral part of the 3D web and as such play an increasingly important role in the evolution of our computer-mediated communication infrastructure. Avatars, which are the representation of the communicator in 3D web applications including email, chat and virtual worlds, are a cornerstone of these new media. A key affordance of avatars is embodiment, which not only gives communicators visible presence in situations and encounters, but also allows them to engage in practices of the body such as walking, sitting or gesturing. As such, the avatar serves as a cue for the communicator's identity and as a powerful visual complement to the more text-based media like instant messaging and email. However, unlike the non-verbal cues that a communicator's real-world body gives off, the cues of the virtual body can be intentionally manipulated and controlled by its owner. Furthermore, the avatar does not only interact with the intended target of the communication, but with the owner him/herself. This complexity of the avatar-self relationship raises questions about what type of relationship to invoke for effective communication in educational, commercial and organizational settings, where the owner - not the avatar - is typically the target of communicative action. This study explores the types of avatar-self relationships that are enacted in virtual worlds, and the conditions under which different relationships become salient and why. Drawing on a sample of residents of Second Life, one of the largest virtual worlds, this research will rely on real-world, face-to-face interviews, as well as a photo-diary interview method for data collection. Categories of avatar-self relationships and a framework for understanding when they become salient and why will be developed using interpretive techniques and an emergent theory building approach that is informed by Erving Goffman's dramaturgical theory of identity negotiation. This broad theoretical approach is widely used in research on avatars and other forms of self-presentation, but the research methods to be employed in this project are innovative, giving this project the potential of contributing significantly to the development of a host of new hypotheses and theoretical advancements. As synthetic worlds and avatars are likely to become more prevalent in 3D web applications, we need to develop frameworks and language to describe and make sense of the increasingly intertwined nature of online and offline selves. This research on the avatar-self relationship makes potentially transformative inroads into our understanding of communicators' negotiation of the increasingly blurred offline-online and reality-virtuality boundaries.

这项研究解决了关于计算机生成的虚拟世界中的化身的核心问题：用户如何在自我和化身之间的许多可能的关系中进行协商？虚拟世界构成了3D网络不可分割的一部分，因此在我们以计算机为媒介的通信基础设施的演变中发挥着越来越重要的作用。化身是包括电子邮件、聊天和虚拟世界在内的3D网络应用中通信者的代表，是这些新媒体的基石。化身的一个关键启示是具体化，它不仅让通信者在情景和遭遇中呈现出来，而且还允许他们参与身体的练习，如行走、坐着或打手势。因此，化身是通信者身份的提示，也是对即时消息和电子邮件等更基于文本的媒体的强大视觉补充。然而，与传播者的真实身体发出的非语言暗示不同，虚拟身体的暗示可以被其所有者故意操纵和控制。此外，化身不仅与通信的预期目标交互，而且与所有者他/她交互。化身-自我关系的这种复杂性引发了这样的问题：在教育、商业和组织环境中，为了有效沟通，应该启用哪种类型的关系，在这些环境中，所有者--而不是化身--通常是交流行为的目标。这项研究探索了虚拟世界中的化身-自我关系的类型，以及不同关系变得突出的条件和原因。这项研究以最大的虚拟世界之一第二人生的居民为样本，将依靠真实世界的面对面采访，以及照片日记采访的方法来收集数据。化身-自我关系的分类，以及当它们变得突出以及为什么将使用解释技术和紧急理论构建方法来理解它们时的框架，该方法受到欧文·戈夫曼的身份谈判戏剧理论的启发。这一广泛的理论方法被广泛应用于化身和其他形式的自我呈现的研究，但本项目将采用的研究方法是创新的，使该项目有可能为一系列新假设和理论进步的发展做出重大贡献。随着合成世界和虚拟形象可能在3D网络应用中变得更加普遍，我们需要开发框架和语言来描述和理解线上和线下自我日益相互交织的本质。这项关于化身-自我关系的研究潜在地改变了我们对交际者对日益模糊的线下-在线和现实-虚拟边界的谈判的理解。