Avatars in Argumentation

On the Role of Avatars in Argumentation and the use of Logical and Rhetorical Tactics

Tom Blount, David Millard and Mark Weal

University of Southampton EPSRC
Creative Commons

Introduction

  • Argumentation is an important part of communication
  • Social argumentation is used differently to formal argumentation
  • The use of avatars in social argumentation presents interesting research areas and challenges

Argumentation

  • Dialectic/Eristic
  • Logic/Rhetoric
  • Social impact/social force

Use of Avatars

  • Socially
  • Recreationally
  • Commercially

Avatars: Social

  • Used for interacting with people within virtual worlds
  • e.g. Second Life
A. M. Kaplan and M. Haenlein (2009) The fairyland of second life: Virtual social worlds and how to use them. Business horizons

Avatars: Recreational

  • Used to play games within virtual worlds
  • e.g. World of Warcraft
J. Wu et al. (2008) Why they enjoy virtual game worlds? an empirical investigation. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research

Avatars: Commercial

  • Used for remote conferencing/collaborating
  • e.g. Collaborative Computer-Supported Argument Visualisation
T. Erickson et al. (2011) Synchronous interaction among hundreds: an evaluation of a conference in an avatar-based virtual environment. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Avatars and Argument: Audience

  • In what ways do avatars affect an audiences perceptions?
  • Gender, height; even species
  • Do people craft avatars based on their knowledge of the audience?
C. Zanbaka, et al. (2006) Can a virtual cat persuade you?: the role of gender and realism in speaker persuasiveness. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems

Avatars and Argument: Proteus Effect

  • People adapt to the "role" of their avatar
  • Does this extend to the use of argumentation tactics?
  • How much of this is retained "offline"?
N. Yee et al. (2009) The proteus effect: Implications of transformed digital self-representation on online and offline behavior. Communication Research

Avatars and Argument: Dialectic Argument

  • People react more favourable to certain avatars
  • Should avatars be made equal?
  • Does that defeat the purpose?

Challenges

  • Purpose: Why has this person created this avatar?
  • Granularity: How customisable are avatars?
  • Restrictions: Can a user accomplish their goal with a particular avatar?

    • Conclusion

    • Accurately modelling argumentation is important
    • Avatars have the potential to affect the way social argumentation is carried out

    Questions?

    Tom Blount - tb12g09@ecs.soton.ac.uk - @Tom_Blount

    References

    T. Erickson, N. S. Shami, W. A. Kellogg, and D. W. Levine. Synchronous interaction among hundreds: an evaluation of a conference in an avatar-based virtual environment. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 503–512. ACM, 2011.

    A. M. Kaplan and M. Haenlein. The fairyland of second life: Virtual social worlds and how to use them. Business horizons, 52(6):563–572, 2009.

    J. Wu, P. Li, and S. Rao. Why they enjoy virtual game worlds? an empirical investigation. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 9(3):219–230, 2008.

    N. Yee, J. N. Bailenson, and N. Ducheneaut. The proteus effect: Implications of transformed digital self-representation on online and offline behavior. Communication Research, 36(2):285–312, 2009.

    C. Zanbaka, P. Goolkasian, and L. Hodges. Can a virtual cat persuade you?: the role of gender and realism in speaker persuasiveness. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems , pages 1153–1162. ACM, 2006.