ARE you a confident, square-jawed warrior or a height-conscious little goblin? If you ever take on a virtual computer persona, the look you opt for may have a profound effect on your behaviour.
Online, in virtual worlds and chat rooms where people create cartoons of themselves known as avatars, changing your image is as simple as making a few clicks of a mouse. As people alter the appearance of their avatars, does their behaviour unwittingly change too?
To answer this question, Nick Yee and Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, assigned two groups of students an avatar…
