137149 - Determinants of Friendship in Social Networking Virtual Worlds.pdf (715.92 kB)
Determinants of Friendship in Social Networking Virtual Worlds
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-20, 10:25 authored by Chesney, T, Swee-Hoon ChuahSwee-Hoon Chuah, Hui, W, Jean Robert HoffmannJean Robert Hoffmann, Larner, JThis paper examines the determinants of friendship between two users in a virtual world who are unaware of each other's real identities. Drawing on theories of homophily, heterophily and propinquity, three virtual world behaviours are analysed: avatar appearance, avatar location, and avatar communication. Data are collected on 179 participants interacting in a novel virtual world. The main results show that: (1) avatars did not tend to form friendships with avatars that are similar in appearance to themselves but did tend to form friendships with avatars that are dressed differently from themselves; (2) in terms of location, the closer an avatar stands to other avatars, the more likely the avatar is to receive a friend invitation; and (3) the fewer words an avatar uses in communication, the more likely the avatar is to receive a friend invitation. This paper contributes to theories of virtual world interaction and to using virtual worlds as a data collection platform.
History
Publication title
Communications of the Association for Information SystemsVolume
34Article number
72Number
72Pagination
1397-1416ISSN
1529-3181Department/School
TSBEPublisher
Association for Information SystemsPlace of publication
United StatesRights statement
Copyright 2014 Association for Information SystemsRepository Status
- Open