Researchers Paul W. Eastwick, a doctoral student in psychology, and Wendi L. Gardner, associate professor of psychology at Northwestern University have published some interesting findings about racial bias in virtual worlds. On the surface, it may seem that society is bringing real-world prejudices into the computer-generated environments, but upon closer examination, the research itself appears to have limitations.
iTnews Australia reports that the experiment in the virtual world There.com used two different models of requesting favors from strangers. Introducing themselves in the virtual world, the researchers pursued either a foot in the door (FITD) or door in the face (DITF) approach. In the first model, a user was asked to have a screenshot taken of his or her avatar, and then, if that was acceptable, to teleport to another location to take a screenshot. In the second model, the user was asked to teleport to 50 different locations for screenshots (a task that would take over two hours), and then asked a more moderate request, which involved a single teleport and screenshot.
By experimenting with different avatars, the researchers found that there appeared to be no racial bias using the FITD approach, but when using the DITF approach, light-skinned avatars were more likely to get agreement for the moderate request than dark-skinned avatars, suggesting that racial bias carries over into virtual worlds as well.
Having spent no time at all in There.com's virtual world, I wanted to check the demographics against Second Life, and a report from Kzero from last summer suggests that the demographic in There.com skews younger and more female than Second Life, curious when you would assume that younger users would have fewer biases than older users. Another missing component, however, is the lack of other comparative issues. While the researchers included skin tone as the determining factor, there seems to be no mention of using other types of avatars popular in the virtual worlds: how do Furries compare to dark-skinned humans? What about alien-themed avatars?
Another possible factor was the use of extreme skin tones not part of the default choices in There.com, with researchers using the lightest possible skin tone and the darkest possible skin tone. Viewing both in the study's Appendix A, the graphics appear to make the dark-skinned avatar's facial features disappear. While the eyes and mouth are clearly delineated in the light-skinned avatar, it's difficult to see the eyes and mouth on the dark-skinned avatar, which may also be off-putting to users.
The study is interesting, but clearly needs more factors taken into account to truly determine biases that carry over into the virtual world, as well as studying biases that exist solely in virtual worlds and how the two combine.
More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:
Post new comment