2023-10-15 18:00:08
In a virtual reality environment, a participant plays Leonardo da Vinci and sketches a movement suggesting an alternative use of a parasol. LAVAL ARTS AND CRAFTS INSTITUTE
Dressing up as Leonardo da Vinci would be enough to boost our creativity… A team including researchers Anatole Lécuyerfrom the National Institute for Research in Digital Sciences and Technologies of Rennes, and Geoffrey Gorisse, from the Institut Arts et Métiers de Laval, shows that embodying an archetype of creative genius in a virtual reality environment increases part of the user’s creative performance tenfold. Their work is being made public at Ismar, an international conference on augmented reality which is being held from October 16 to 20 in Sydney (Australia).
The researchers evaluated the creativity of individuals operating in a virtual environment, along two axes: “convergent thinking”, or the ability to find a solution to a problem, and “divergent thinking”, which is the ability to generate many and varied ideas. The participants in the control group embodied avatars with a physiognomy close to their real appearance. Those in the test group played Leonardo da Vinci.
“Participants who played Leonardo da Vinci generated on average 40% more ideas, compared to those in the control group!s’exclame Geoffrey Gorisse. Such a difference in divergent thinking performance turns out to be significant, given that the creative abilities of the two groups were similar before the experiment. »
“Individual packaging”
This phenomenon has a name: the Proteus effect. Discovered in 2007, it designates “a tendency, on the part of virtual reality users, to align their attitudes and behavior with the stereotypes associated with the avatar they embody”explains David Beyea, media communications specialist at the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater (United States). “Unconsciously, the individual summons pre-existing patterns associated with the avatar he embodies, develops Kim Szolin, doctoral student in cyber psychology at Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom. For example: if I am tall, I should behave with more confidence…”
This effect has been observed for extremely varied behaviors: an avatar of a nurse induces more lenient behavior than the avatar of a member of the Ku Klux Klan; an avatar considered attractive promotes extroverted and friendly behavior; a muscular avatar even allows better sporting performance (more force deployed and less fatigue during exercise)… “It’s not witchcraft, turns Geoffrey Gorisse. Participants do not become smarter because they play Einstein, nor do they become more creative because they are immersed in the role of Leonardo da Vinci. But it is an individual conditioning which allows them to strive towards their full potential, to mobilize their intrinsic capacities differently. »
You have 47.56% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
#avatars #modulate #behavior #virtual #reality