Influence of Avatars and Images: are you affected?

reply to post by redoubt

I'd have to agree... it is based more from writing style than avatar (or no avatar/img.) for me, as well...

Thanks for bumping up the thread! I keep finding new info. to add to it...

Originally posted by LadySkadi
reply to post by redoubt

 

I'd have to agree... it is based more from writing style than avatar (or no avatar/img.) for me, as well...

Thanks for bumping up the thread! I keep finding new info. to add to it...

Excellent topic and one that shouldn't ever really grow old.

Cheers

I just liked the image, thought it was sort of unique. I've always had a "thing" about eyes (their psychospiritual connotations). I'm a gold investor, among other things, and I'm also deeply interested in many forms of spirituality. The avatar perhaps expresses this odd mix of the spiritual and the material that I often find myself enmeshed in.


[edit on 11/3/09 by silent thunder]

reply to post by Bringer


That would be implying that everyone who watches anime or admires anime styled characters is thirteen years old.

(And that also leads me to speculate that you are implying that lesser age, relates to ignorance, thus making someone with an anime avatar, ignorant)

Not the case.

1)I myself use an anime avatar and don't see how that relates whatsoever to the age of the user.
2)Although ignorance can reflect off of age, it does not always, and assuming what you were implying were true, there would still have to be a relationship with anime, and age. There is not.

It does however show their tastes in character style, but it gets deeper than that, with the colors, and overall "feel" of the avatar.





On the note of avatars, I feel that they reflect off of the user who displays it in terms of personality, and openness, but in the more critical, or skeptical population usually their avatars reflect off of how they want to be perceived, turning out to be more manipulative.

reply to post by LadySkadi


Great post. It is interesting how our avatars let us perceive what the posters biases are, temperament, discrimination's, how they were brought up,who their friends are and what they are looking for in life.

LadySkadi, with your avatar I perceive you are female, you like collecting "girly things" though in reality you may be tom-boyish. You have a good relationship with your parents and you have 3 or 4 really close friends. You might have the ability to quell alot of family problems as they might come to you as advice. You like horses.
You might have some dental problems but they are taken care of now. You had your drivers license earlier than your friends. And you might have been raised in a rural area out of the city. You might also have a tatoo of a design on your back. You read books from time to time of medieval/romance type subjects. You might even wished you were a princess in your childhood.

That is the type of things people perceive when they look at peoples avatars. I'm not sure how close I was to any of my guess's but it is what goes through minds at the subconscious level while our avatars are being observed.

reply to post by wiredamerican

Off on some minor things but that was close! Well done.

ETA: do I know you?


[edit on 3-11-2009 by LadySkadi]

One of the trends I've noted on the Web in the last few years (on ATS as well as elsewhere) is more males picking female avatars. In the past, I think this was rarer, perhaps because people identified their avatars more deeply with themselves. Now I think there has been a shift, where more people are pick their avatars based on their desires rather than their true selves. If so, it would account for the proliferation of beautiful female avatars by male posters.

"ETA: do I know you?

"

No we do not know each other, I was testing my psychic abilities with image perception. I take it that its working.

[edit on 3-11-2009 by wiredamerican]

reply to post by wiredamerican


The following is not to 'dis' your insights... they are just my own personal observations...

I perceive you are female, you like collecting "girly things" though in reality you may be tom-boyish.

NOTES: About 6 in 10 females pass through a Tomboy stage. Many of these carry some of that into adulthood. My daughter was this and to a degree, still is. Her years playing fastpitch softball has led her to be a big sports fan... though she has also embraced her feminine side most closely along the way.

You have a good relationship with your parents and you have 3 or 4 really close friends. You might have the ability to quell alot of family problems as they might come to you as advice. You like horses.

NOTES: Females tend to have more overall acquaintances than males, but fewer close friends. Those whom they do draw close to are often their friends for life. Females, almost as a rule, do like horses, birds and cats (even those allergic to them.) They are also more family oriented and tend to find family divisions as pointless.

You might have some dental problems but they are taken care of now.

NOTES: Females often suffer from calcium deficiencies, mainly from menstruation and childbearing. This often leads to dental issues.

You had your drivers license earlier than your friends.

NOTES: Why is it that guys just can't get this part of growing up right the first time?

And you might have been raised in a rural area out of the city. You might also have a tattoo of a design on your back. You read books from time to time of medieval/romance type subjects.

NOTES: Females, if they choose to have a tattoo, will almost invariably choose a shoulder/back, upper (above) breast or leg-calf.

You might even wished you were a princess in your childhood.

NOTES: What little girl ever did not?

Oh, I just got played? Should have put more thought into that before reacting with a post. Also, very good insight...

My thread topic (the original post) has been taken and re-posted in various blog sites. Word for word, no less. Interesting.

Here's a few:

Current.com
LiveLeak.com



[edit on 4-11-2009 by LadySkadi]

Thank you Mods. - for looking into this. Appreciate it!



[edit on 5-11-2009 by LadySkadi]

This was very interesting to read, as well as the full study (which I did not read in entirety) but still, now has me thinking about what avatar to select for myself. That is, once I figure out how to do so. Lol. Good thread.

Originally posted by LadySkadi
Consider the implications [and] possibilities for social and psychological manipulation... The possibilities are endless...

What does a chosen avatar reveal? Does it influence how you perceive others or how you are perceived? (are you credible, are you intelligent, are you trusted, etc.) With the absence of physical presence and non-verbal communication ques, avatars may provide a means to identify, relate to and evaluate and judge others online and if so, they may have have greater implications for a user, than perhaps one thought.

Uncertainty Reduction Theory posits that people's primary goal in an interaction is to reduce uncertainty about the person they are interacting with. In reducing uncertainty, people strive to understand people's behavior during interactions as well as to predict future behavior Thus, people strive to 'get to know' or form perceptions of others...

...because avatars are a visible representation of a person ... evaluations based on the physical appearance of the avatar may be transferred to them. In other words, people use information related to the virtual image in a process analogous to the one they have learned and used to reduce uncertainty during their experience in natural environments...

...It is possible that the presence of an avatar is a strong social cue that influences people's perceptions, leading them to perceive interfaces as more 'social'. Similarly, how people perceive avatars may influence both the self-perception and perception of others using a particular avatar as well as message perception and retention...

Not only do avatars create a more 'social' online perception, but the 'type' of avatar chosen may directly affect a user's credibility...

...avatars that were more anthropomorphic were perceived to be more attractive and credible, and people were more likely to choose to be represented by them. The strongest predictor of these variables, however, was the degree of masculinity or femininity (lack of androgyny) of an avatar. Further, those images with strong gender indications (either more masculine or more feminine) were perceived as more anthropomorphic than images (whether human or not) without strong indications of gender.

Basically, the findings suggest that people have higher expectations of users with avatars that are male or female (rather than object) and that there may be consequences associated with those expectations...

...it seems that the characteristics of an avatar may at times provide useful, and relatively accurate, information about the person it represents... a majority reported a preference for avatars that were 'like' them, at least in terms of gender. This suggests that users may also want to match other characteristics such as hair color and race, perhaps sexual orientation, or even hobbies...

[edit on 7-8-2010 by Fresh Air]

Originally posted by rubyeyes
I don't know how to make an avatar. So this is what you get. hehe I also don't really know how to upload pics without help. I need to learn computers better.

Here ya go Ruby!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/636f64151f85.gif[/atsimg]



S&F I love your thread!

I simply like to play with Avatars. To date, I have had a few up already. I would not advise anyone to
seek a deep meaning or reflection of myself thru them since that is never my intention. It is all in
the name of fun!

when i chose that avatar on the left i was spining between being a believer and a non believer....

that still applies which i persume is called a sceptic....

hmmmm

i still follow the smell of whatever smoke i find along my path.

still a sceptic but it seems what i am mostly looking to find or rule out when on ATS

(At least that was the initial cause for coming a-board),

is depicted on the left.


Since then i ve had other interests on ATS besides smeling smoke o lil green men and round saucershaped
flying constructions (misconceptions?)

but i ve always favourited mu initial avatar on the left

it s just what makes people recognise its me without reading the name

maybe a lil bit impersonal

then again the ones who got interested got to know me much better

just an avatar

just something to meke u distinguishasble between others

just like a name or like a face

take care all

love GTG

... I just like Orion's belt and pink/purple.... ._.
I've tryied to change my avatar but I don't know what to put in a new one (I make them on photoshop)

Glad to see this thread pop up again, it's a fun topic and more so with a bit of the psychology behind avatars explained... Whether the explanation is relevant is probably dependent on the person as we all have our reasons for choosing what we have.



My images have changed since I started this thread and are a bit different from the one that kicked this off. However, I've settled into a bit of a theme and rotate them around when I'm ready for a change. They all have a similar "feel" to them and probably send a similar message, I think.

I'm not fully sure what mine would be if I could find out how to upload even after watching the tutorial.

reply to post by America?


Hehe, ya - it was confusing the first time I went through it too, though SO's video helped a lot.
I took it step by step and it wasn't bad. Let me know if ya want some help, I'd be happy to.

Quick re-cap:

Theme: Avatars and Images influence how others view the otherwise anonymous writer behind the screen. Trust/Mistrust, Intelligence, Reputation and other aspects are attributed to the writer via the image that is chosen to represent him/her. In the reverse, the image chosen by the writer also conveys a message to the viewers, something that can be both conscious or subconscious.

Do you notice that there are avatars/images that influence your perception of the writer? Do you seem to place more or less weight to their word because of it? Is there something about the representation of the image that you consciously or subconsciously attach to the writer behind the computer and does it have positive/negative/neutral affect on you? Have you ever though about it?

ETA: Link to the full study: The Influence of the Avatar on Online Perceptions of Anthropomorphism, Androgyny, Credibility, Homophily, and Attraction