Exploring the Behavioral and Facial Similarities of Humans and their Virtual Representations

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

In many communication, education, and entertainment contexts, people interact with others via some type of digital representations of themselves. This research project examines two types of such representations: 1) virtual humans that behave like a specific individual but looks different from that individual on a specific dimension, and 2) virtual humans that look like a specific individual but perform some novel action which that individual has never done. In the first category, pilot work has demonstrated that people's behavior conforms to the visual features of their representations. In the second category, pilot work has demonstrated that people model the behavior of digital representations more when the representation looks like them than when it does not. The current project explores the strength, duration, and processes behind this effect in terms of interactivity. Specifically, the project will develop the technical aspects of making oneself appear to change in real-time?get older, younger, taller, more attractive, as well as the psychological implications of seeing oneself change shape or social category. This work is risky because a) it is unclear if a human will respond in a natural way to an altered version of the self, b) the computer algorithms that take a three-dimensional face modeled after a specific user have never been tested in terms of changing the age, gender, and attractiveness of a specific face, and c) no researchers have ever tested the implications of being in virtual reality weeks after the exposure to a digital model. Humans have relied upon abstract representations of themselves for centuries?painted portraits and statues have been one of the cornerstones of historical art. However in the digital age, representations are much more dynamic and transformable than their physical counterparts. Given that a substantial portion of the population are spending literally hours per day interacting via digital representations (e.g., voices on cell phones, characters in online games, profiles on social network web sites such as Facebook), understanding the ramifications of this phenomenon is crucial. For example, how long do the effects last, and what parameters contribute (e.g., interactivity, similarity, etc.) most? The current proposal has the potential to change the way we think about the implications of interacting with online versions of one another, and consequently relates to the fields of communication, psychology, education, and computer science. In sum, in the world in which people have identities in digital space, understanding how those digital representations relate to the physical self is paramount.