NPR on the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab
NPR yesterday had a short, but nice interview with Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab. Bailenson gave a short, but intense rundown of some of his work at Metaverse U earlier this year, so it's nice to hear him explaining things at a public radio pace. The topic of the day is weight loss with a mirrored, optimal-self avatar through vicarious reinforcement. A participant is shown that weight loss is possible through exercise, and then, as research has shown, they're more likely to continue to exercise even out of the lab. "What we can do is show you a model of your optimal self," said Bailenson. "In two separate studies now we've demonstrated that the mere act of watching this causes you to see that weight change is possible and in your optimal self you can actually lose weight."
The results go beyond weight loss into improved self-confidence.
"What we study is in these online worlds, when somebody has an optimal self how does that change how I think about myself and how I behave in a social manner, meaning how do I internalize this new me," said Bailenson. "If I put you inside a virtual simulation, and you know you're wearing an avatar that's just a little more attractive than the norm, and you then turn around and talk to someone. If you have an attractive avatar as opposed to a normal avatar, you'll stand about a meter closer to this person."
The first round of studies showed more social action in a virtual reality. A series of subsequent studies showed that after spending time as an attractive avatar, an hour later, the afterglow of attractiveness hadn't worn off when participants were asked to make real-world decisions.
"The confidence you've gotten from having a virtual attractive face pervades in the physical world one hour later," said Bailenson.
As Bailenson points out, digital interactions, from phone calls to Second Life meetings, are replacing more and more personal interactions.
As Gartner Principle Analyst Adam Sarner pointed out to me last fall, the sort of research that Bailenson is doing becomes increasingly important to understand as not only our personal interactions, but our business transactions move to virtual environments.
"I envision this world beginning with us controlling a persona [his term for an avatar-like identity] that will walk up to the company bot [an automated avatar] who will then notice what we look like, our mannerisms, how we've been communicating with people, and then morph into a persona that will mirror us," Sarner explained. "The best sales people are people like us. Think of a car salesman, for example. You walk in and you're thinking of a new car, and then he notices a tennis racket in your back seat. He then says, "Oh, after this I'm going to go play tennis," and it makes a connection. That's what the company bot will do."
That's an effect that's already been demonstrated by Stanford's vHIL group, so it might be worth while to go ahead and start slimming down that avatar for a confidence boost.
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