ABSTRACT
Avatars, or pictorial representations of users, are commonly used in chat rooms, video games, and online virtual communities. As virtual platforms become increasingly common tools of persuasion, researchers and marketers alike will benefit from an enhanced understanding of the role played by self-created avatars in users own web experience and information processing, particularly their role in aiding persuasion. In a virtual environment, an avatar plays the role of a mirror that reflects a users identity as well as a window for viewing the world. It is a tool that users choose for communication as well as for self-representation in cyberspace. Self-representation has increasingly become important in social networking sites (SNSs). The strength of the avatar, technologically, is that users are able to customize their body images by selecting from body features, including skin color, hair, eyes, and even accessories, enabling users to freely create and manipulate their identities.
