Technology Blog

Old or young, beautiful or sinister - the choices are endless when designing an avatar or a virtual alter ego. In the end, do people choose one that is really different from themselves? Usually not, according to new Concordia University research that shows in most cases, avatars reflect the personality of their creators. The study, published in next month?s issue of Psychology and Marketing, has implications for real-life companies who would like to reach both the virtual and real-world markets.?It is estimated that by 2011, 80 percent of Internet consumers and Fortune 500 companies will have an avatar or presence in a virtual community,? says Dr. H. Onur Bodur a professor at the Concordia John Molson School of Business. ?There is limited research about these environments thus we undertook the task of understanding the consumers behind avatars.?Second Life a burgeoning virtual worldDr. Bodur and a former graduate student, Jean-Francois Belisle, studied the avatar-creator behaviour in the virtual community Sec

"It is estimated that by 2011, 80 percent of Internet consumers and Fortune 500 companies will have an avatar or presence in a virtual community," says Dr. H. Onur Bodur a professor at the Concordia John Molson School of Business. "There is limited research about these environments thus we undertook the task of understanding the consumers behind avatars."
"This virtual world stands out because it has its own economy, where real-money transactions occur," says Belisle. "Membership in the avatar world has increased more than twentyfold between 2006 to 2009 and has reached about 15 million."
"Overall, the impressions made by the physical traits of the avatar match certain dimensions of the true personality of the creator," says Dr. Bodur.