Reflections of the extended self: Visual self-representation in avatar-mediated environments

We examine the relationship between avatars in virtual environments and the people they represent. We find that people (balancing the motives of self-verification and self-enhancement) design their avatars to be similar to their real selves, but with some enhancements that are more attractive. In particular, users most enhance on physical attributes that they perceive to be weak in real life. We also find that avatar attractiveness affects online behavioral traits such as extroversion and loudness. Lastly, we find support for a hierarchy of physical variation across online roles whereby people retain core identity elements (such as gender and race) across all their avatars, but they change peripheral elements (such as hair and clothing, and even face). We conclude by discussing implications of our findings for business and society.