Multiple personality order

physical and personality characteristics of the self, primary avatar and alt

Richard L. Gilbert

Jessica A. Foss

Nora A. Murphy

pp. 213-234

in: Anna Peachey, Mark Childs (eds), Reinventing ourselves, Berlin, Springer, 2011

Abstract

One hundred and four participants, all of whom had multiple avatars in the 3D virtual world of Second Life^TM, completed a set of measures to assess how physical characteristics, activity preferences, personality features, and social-emotional processes are similar or different across various combinations of the physical self, the primary avatar, and the sole or most frequently used alt. Data was also obtained on the frequency of alt use, motivations for constructing alts, and the main forms of identity experimentation engaged in with alts. The combined results were then used to construct a model of how personality systems composed of multiple offline and online identities operate and form a "multiple personality order." As 3D virtual worlds and the global population of avatars continue to grow, creating and coordinating a system of multiple offline and online identities will increasingly become a normative feature of human development and, like a choreographer managing a company of dancers or a conductor leading an orchestra, the operation of personality will take on a quality of performance art.