Avatars, characters, multiple identities: observations on dissociative processes
Michel Nachez, Patrick Schmoll
Hybrid January 1, 2022 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.4000/hybrid.2607 via OpenAlex
Summary
In virtual worlds like Second Life, people form deep emotional bonds with their avatars, blurring the line between genuine feeling and pretense. Players simultaneously identify with and distance themselves from their digital selves, raising questions about who actually experiences emotions—the avatar or the person. This ability to shift identities challenges the consistency of the self, drawing parallels to possession phenomena and out-of-body experiences in traditional societies.
Study at a glance
| Design | qualitative study |
|---|---|
| Population | gamers and participants in Second Life |
| Key finding | Avatarization creates paradoxical relationships of identification and distance, raising questions about the authenticity of emotions and the continuity of self across multiple identities. |
Abstract
This paper looks into the implications of avatarization regarding self-construction and self-presentation, based on personal experiences and observations conducted in a virtual world (Second Life), observations and conversations with other gamers, and an exploration of the paradoxes at play in participants’ relationships to their avatars, as well as in their relationship to other players and their avatars, which simultaneously conjure up notions of identification and distance, truth and pretense, “real” and “substitute” relationships. Our analysis first focuses on the emotions and feelings experienced through persistent-world avatars or video-game characters, drawing distinctions between the different types of involvement likely to bind individuals to their virtual stand-ins. The genuine experience of emotions and feelings raises the paradoxical question of their authenticity (a player cannot pretend to be experiencing such feelings—unless they are pretending to pretend). It simultaneously raises the question of who is experiencing these feelings: the avatar (the character) or the player? The ability to shift from one identity to another ultimately raises the abysmal question of self-continuity across multiple identities, and of the consistency of this “self.” This discussion will be informed by an exploration of the phenomenon of multiple identity and of the notion of dissociation in contemporary scientific literature, as we draw a parallel with possession phenomena and out-of-body travel in traditional societies.