Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Perceived Gender And Its Effect On Attributions Toward Avatars In The Video Game Spore, Victoria Marie Sweeney

HIM 1990-2015

In this study, 174 undergraduates from the University of Central Florida were asked to rate individual human and animal avatar features from the video game Spore on their level of femininity, masculinity, likability, and how well the feature represented them on a 7 point Likert scale of agreeability. Avatar features were presented on a neutral gray, quadruped body in two different views. It was expected that participants would show higher likability for avatar features that they perceived as corresponding to their Personal Attribute Questionnaire (PAQ) gender. Males liked feminine features approximately the same as females, however, in many categories females …