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Computer Avatars Could Be Key to Self-Improvement

A new study found that lookalike virtual avatars can help people stick to goals.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on March 15 2010
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Digital avatar. Image via Stanford.

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Computer role-playing games like The Sims often face a critical question: why spend so much time in a virtual world when you could be engaging in the real world instead?

While game researchers like Jane McGonigal are working to channel gamers’ obsessions into world-changing outlets, it now appears that there’s yet another way online role-playing can improve life off-screen. According to a new study, your lookalike online avatar can help you become a better person.

Jesse Fox, a researcher at Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, discovered that when subjects created computerized avatars based on their own appearances, watching these avatars model good behaviors could help the subjects overcome their own weaknesses.

For example, when subjects saw images of their digital doppelgangers running on treadmills, they were motivated to exercise after leaving the lab. On average, they did one more full hour of exercise than subjects who had been shown lazy lookalike avatars or non-lookalike exercising avatars.

“If they saw a person they didn’t know, they weren’t motivated to exercise. But if they saw themselves, they exercised significantly more,” said Fox.

In another study, Fox showed participants personalized avatars that ate either healthy food or junk food. When the avatars ate carrots, they began to lose their virtual love handles. But when the avatars chowed down on potato chips and cake, they saw their bodies swell. While male participants were led to eat more junk food (chalk that one up to the old double standard), the females noted the avatars’ example, and made healthier dietary choices in their own lives.

In addition to guiding participants to make better nutritional and exercise choices, Fox believes that the avatar program could also be used to help people with self-esteem issues, such as anorexic women. These women could be paired with a healthy-figured avatar, and learn to become comfortable in this body in the virtual world while recovering from their disease. We can see a whole range of other possibilities, from quitting smoking to adapting to better work habits.

So next time you’re playing The Sims or Second Life and people ask you why you’re wasting time, you can tell them you’re working on your personal development goals. And, as evidence, show them this story.

Filed under: General Interest, Science,

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