Spatial Social Behavior in Second Life

We have developed software bots that inhabit the popular online social environment SecondLife (SL). Our bots can wander around, collect data, engage in simple interactions, and carry out simple automated experiments. In this paper we use our bots to study spatial social behavior. We found an indication that SL users display distinct spatial behavior when interacting with other users. In addition, in an automated experiment carried out by our bot, we found that users, when their avatars were approached by our bot, tended to respond by moving their avatar, further indicating the significance of proxemics in SL.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: IVA
• Authors: Doron Friedman, Anthony Steed, Mel Slater
• Keywords: Bots, IVA 2007, Social Environment Secondlife, Spatial Social Behavior