Avatars More Extroverted, Humans More Inquisitive?

Last week I mentioned Botgirl Questi's "Big Five"-based personality test, which she asked volunteers to take twice, first answering the questions from the perspective of their offline self, and another time, from the point of view of their Second Life avatar.  She's just posted the initial results, and though it's a small sample of fifteen respondents, the results are intriguing.  On average, avatars are 30% more Extroverted than their real life owners (67% to 37%, respectively.)  This to me is not surprising; we tend to be much more gregarious from behind the protection of our alter egos.  What surprises me is the next largest variation:

On average, Botgirl's Human volunteers rank 17% more Inquisitive than their Avatars (67% to 50%.)  This seems like a paradox: how can we be more sociable while also being less curious?  One interpretation: it's my sense that most SL Residents,tend to stay within their in-world social circle, once they find their niche, and quickly develop a handful of "third place" locations in Second Life that they rarely stray from.  But again, it is a small sample, so best not to draw broader generalizations too hastily.  What's your take on the data?

Comments

[Melanie Aluveaux]

I noted that the "inquisitiveness" dimension of the survery seems to be based on how much a person agrees that he/she likes "science" and theory. As a professional researcher, I must question the construct validity of the survey instrument. It seems to me that a person may be "inquisitive" without necessarily identifying as a scientist. I note that my avatar, who came to Second Life specifically to teach (from a science oriented university), was calculated to be much more inquisitive than my human persona.

[Negko deVinna]

Maybe a balance of liquids in 'communicating glasses'? If people are more extroverted, they are more open to talk and confess, so, at the opposite, listeners do not have to ask a lot of questions, and then don't feel 'inquisitive'...?

[Forelle Broek]

Melanie identifies the source of the apparent anomaly: the construct validity of the survey instrument's five personality dimensions (which are derived from a questionable factor analysis technique) is doubtful.

Nonetheless, for those, like me, who are more broadly skeptical of "personality" instruments like BigFive, Meyers-Briggs, etc., BotGirl's survey (with all applicable caveats about sample size, etc.) is rather interesting regardless of what the individual "personality dimensions" are really measuring; the significant point is that those measures reveal differences in the different settings of RL and SL. That observation (assuming it were to hold up under more rigorous testing conditions) would be very consistent with the situationist view that behavior is more strongly influenced by social context than by any underlying "personality" dispositions, and conversely inconsistent with the dispositionist premise (which underlies BigFive, Meyers-Briggs, etc.) that behavior is best explained by inherent and relatively stable personality traits or types.

[Marianne McCann]

As I noted over there, I personally feel I am more inquisitive in SL -- but the way this category was determined on the test does not provide for an accurate representation of this.