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Abstract
To investigate the influence of media figures on self-perception, online gamers reported how central their main videogame character (avatar) is to their own identity and answered questions about their avatar's body size either before or after questions about their own body size. When the avatar was not central to the gamer's identity, the avatar's body size influenced gamer's own body judgments only when the avatar was brought to mind by preceding questions. When the avatar was central to the gamer's identity, it influenced gamers' own body judgments independent of question order. In both cases, accessible avatars elicited assimilation effects on self-judgment. We conclude that media figures exert a chronic influence on self-judgment when they are central to the self.
Notes
1. Note that the term chronic accessibility is sometimes used to refer to the baseline likelihood of a concept coming to mind, independent of context. Here, we follow its use in much of social cognition research where chronic accessibility is context sensitive and implies that the information comes to mind whenever the person thinks about an object to which it is linked in memory without requiring additional situational cues.
2. Gamers who used different sex avatars did not differ in age, reported income, the number of avatars they currently used, how long they had used their avatar, and how many hours per week they reported using their avatar, Fs < 1. They did however, report that their avatar was somewhat less central to their identity (M = 3.13) than gamers who used same-sex avatars (M = 3.64), F(1, 427) = 3.46, p < .07.
3. Eighteen participants did not report their height (N = 1), weight, (N = 5) or height and weight (N = 12). In addition to these participants, 1 did not report their body image and 3 did not report their avatar's body. Where possible, these participants were included in our analyses. Results do not change if they are excluded.
4. These results are the same regardless of whether the data are analyzed using regression or analysis of variation (ANOVA). ANOVA results are presented for ease of interpretation.