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How user personality and social value orientation influence avatar-mediated friendship

Thomas Chesney (Nottingham University Business School, Nottingham, UK)
Swee-Hoon Chuah (Economics, Finance and Marketing Department, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia)
Robert Hoffmann (Economics, Finance and Marketing Department, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia)
Wendy Hui (Curtin Business School, Curtin University, Perth, Australia)
Jeremy Larner (Nottingham University Business School, Nottingham, UK)

Information Technology & People

ISSN: 0959-3845

Article publication date: 7 November 2016

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of user personality and vlaues on the number of connections users make, the number of requests for connections that users give out, and the number of connections invitations users receive.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a field study of 179 participants interacting in a novel virtual world. The world’s server logs are used to capture sociometrics about the users and their interaction.

Findings

Findings suggest that personality and values influence the number of friends users make and the number of friendship requests users give out, but not the number of friendship invitations users receive. Only one personality trait – conscientiousness – exhibits homophily.

Originality/value

Perosnality and social value orientation have rarely been studied together in information systems (IS) research, despite research showing the two have an impact on IS relevant constructs. The use of server logs for data capture is novel. Avatar friendship is an under-researched concept in IS.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research formed part of the VERUS project, led by John Murray at the SRI International, and was funded by the US Air Force Research Lab under contract number FA8650-10-C-7009. The authors thank Don Arns, Steve Benford, John Byrnes, Kyle Leveque, Immanuel Moonesar, Said Muhammad, Wen Wang, and the University of Wollongong, Dubai, for their help, and acknowledge research assistance from Natasha Ambigaibalan, Kasia Cambell, and Lu Dong.

Citation

Chesney, T., Chuah, S.-H., Hoffmann, R., Hui, W. and Larner, J. (2016), "How user personality and social value orientation influence avatar-mediated friendship", Information Technology & People, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 688-716. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-10-2014-0242

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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