ИСТИНА

In previous studies it has been shown that social interactions with avatars in virtual environment are ruled by many aspects of avatar’s appearance including their ethnicity, gender etc. We investigated the gender differences of participant’s behavior during the interaction with avatars of different ethnic appearance. Forty participants (19M, 21F, 18-23) were tested. Three virtual scenes were constructed each represented a living room with a group of three avatars standing in the center. The scenes differed in ethnic appearance of avatars. Virtual scenes were presented using the CAVE virtual reality system. The participants were asked to walk around avatars and remember all the details of its appearance. During the execution participant’s locations were recorded. Then participants answered the questions about details of avatar’s appearance and filled out the questionnaires assessing their presence effect and ethnic attitudes. Behavioral characteristics were analyzed including average minimal and maximal interpersonal distances. The results showed the compensation effects in interpersonal distances: shorter - with avatars which appearance represented own subject’s ethnic groups and longer - with avatars of other ethnic appearance. It was also found that questionnaire’s scores were in good agreement with behavioral characteristics. The gender differences of walking strategy while performing the task were revealed. Women preferred to maintain longer distances interacting with avatars of other ethnic groups while men maintained shorter interpersonal distances interacting with avatars of other ethnic groups. The obtained results may be useful for developing methods of testing the behavioral patterns during interactions with virtual partners.