1 Department of Telecommunications, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida , Gainesville, Florida.
2 Department of Advertising, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida , Gainesville, Florida.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2018 Mar;21(3):173-178. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2017.0451.
Older adults are increasingly interacting with other people online via virtual avatars, yet little is known about how avatars affect older adults' behavior. This study examines how interacting avatars' age affects older adult's self-disclosure and trust in a relation-building context. Previous studies have found that users can take on behaviors consistent with characteristics of the avatars. In social interactions, people also assess their avatar in relation to other avatars for similarity or differences. We conducted a 2 (self-avatar: old vs. young) × 2 (other's avatar: old vs. young) experiment with older-adult participants aged 60+ (n = 95). The findings show that using younger avatars did not increase self-disclosure. However, the older-adult participants disclosed more information when their avatar's age matched their partner avatar's age (i.e., old to old, young to young). They also trust their partners more when the interacting avatars shared similar age. This study provides theoretical insights into the role of avatars in online relationship-building and extends our understanding of the avatar effects on older adults.
老年人越来越多地通过虚拟化身与其他人在线互动，但人们对化身如何影响老年人的行为知之甚少。本研究考察了交互化身的年龄如何影响老年个体在建立关系背景下的自我表露和信任。之前的研究发现，用户可以表现出与化身特征一致的行为。在社交互动中，人们还会根据相似性或差异性来评估他们的化身与其他化身。我们进行了一项包含 60 岁以上老年人参与者（n=95）的 2（自我化身：年老 vs. 年轻）×2（他人化身：年老 vs. 年轻）实验。研究结果表明，使用年轻的化身并不能增加自我表露。然而，当参与者的化身年龄与他们的伴侣化身年龄相匹配时（即老对老、少对少），他们会透露更多的信息。当交互化身具有相似的年龄时，他们也会更信任他们的伴侣。这项研究为化身在在线关系建立中的作用提供了理论上的见解，并扩展了我们对化身对老年人影响的理解。
