ИСТИНА

Gender differences exist in almost every aspect of our life. Individuals have an array of different societal expectations in regards to behaviors, communication, appearances, attitudes, and roles in society, but these expectations tend to be based on the general principle of whether the individual is male or female. Currently a lot of social studies have been done with the help of virtual reality technologies. The effectiveness of their application was been proven in the studies of many social phenomena – in nonverbal communication, in training social skills, in rehabilitation of social anxiety and etc. A lot of attention has recently been paid to the problem of gender differences during social interaction with virtual partners – avatars. Unfortunately a problem concerning gender differences during interactions with avatars of different ethnic appearances has been little studied. The goal of our study was to investigate the gender peculiarities of the interaction with avatars of different ethnic appearances. Using the CAVE virtual reality system we studied gender features of interpersonal distances maintained with avatars. Four three-dimensional virtual scenes with avatars were designed. Four types of avatars with different ethnic appearances, were created, including avatars of Slavic, Asian, North Caucasian, and African-American appearance. All avatars were male. The participants (all positioned themselves as Russians) were immersed in virtual environments with the help of the CAVE virtual reality system. Their task was to come to the avatar, to present herself/himself in a free form and to give instructions for the further work. During the execution the interpersonal distances were registered. After leaving the CAVE the participants were asked to filled out a questionnaire assessing the presence effect. The results showed gender differences in keeping interpersonal distances: women preferred to keep shorter interpersonal distances with virtual partners compared with the distances chosen by men. Also it was revealed the impact of ethnic appearance on interpersonal distances. Women more closely approached the avatars of their own ethnic group and kept further from avatars of other ethnic groups. Unlike women, men adhered to the same distance with avatars of different ethnic groups. Both kept equally far from the avatar of African-American appearance. Gender differences were also found revealed in the Presence effect estimates. This method allows assessing gender variables during social interaction with high accuracy. It can be applied successfully for studying gender features in different social phenomena.