Determinants of Friendship in Social Networking Virtual Worlds
This 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 com...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Association for Information Systems
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol34/iss1/72/ http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/26710 |
| _version_ | 1848752063829245952 |
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| author | Chesney, T. Chuah, S. Hui, Wendy Hoffmann, R. Larner, J. |
| author_facet | Chesney, T. Chuah, S. Hui, Wendy Hoffmann, R. Larner, J. |
| author_sort | Chesney, T. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This 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. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:02:40Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-26710 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:02:40Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Association for Information Systems |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-267102017-01-30T12:54:51Z Determinants of Friendship in Social Networking Virtual Worlds Chesney, T. Chuah, S. Hui, Wendy Hoffmann, R. Larner, J. assortativity server log telemetry online community avatar This 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. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/26710 http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol34/iss1/72/ Association for Information Systems fulltext |
| spellingShingle | assortativity server log telemetry online community avatar Chesney, T. Chuah, S. Hui, Wendy Hoffmann, R. Larner, J. Determinants of Friendship in Social Networking Virtual Worlds |
| title | Determinants of Friendship in Social Networking Virtual Worlds |
| title_full | Determinants of Friendship in Social Networking Virtual Worlds |
| title_fullStr | Determinants of Friendship in Social Networking Virtual Worlds |
| title_full_unstemmed | Determinants of Friendship in Social Networking Virtual Worlds |
| title_short | Determinants of Friendship in Social Networking Virtual Worlds |
| title_sort | determinants of friendship in social networking virtual worlds |
| topic | assortativity server log telemetry online community avatar |
| url | http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol34/iss1/72/ http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/26710 |