When your Second Life comes knocking: Effects of personality on changes to real life from virtual world experiences

Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability were the strongest predictors of VW experiences.Emotional involvement was the single strongest predictor of changes to real life.Conscientiousness predicted low changes to real life.Agreeableness and Intellect predicted emotional involvement with the virtual world.Extraversion predicted similarity between users and avatars. A survey study (N=223) of participants in the social virtual world, Second Life, examined the relationship between Big Five personality factors, experiences in the virtual world and reports of changes to real life resulting from the virtual world experiences. Hypotheses about direct and indirect effects of personality on real life changes were tested with structural equation modeling. Results showed that the strength of users' relationship to the virtual environment, identification with and similarity to their avatars positively predicted reports of changes to real life, and that these three factors mediated effects of Agreeableness, Extraversion, Intellect, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability, on real life changes. Conscientiousness also had a direct negative relationship with real life changes. Implications are discussed for the potential of virtual social media features for activating facets of personality traits.

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