On the Internet you can be anyone: An experiment on strategic avatar choice in online marketplaces

Diya Abraham, Ben Greiner and Marianne Stephanides ()
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Marianne Stephanides: Wirtschaftuniversität Wien, Institute for Markets and Strategy

MUNI ECON Working Papers from Masaryk University

Abstract: In order to decrease social distance and increase trust on their platforms, many online marketplaces allow traders to be represented by profile pictures or avatars. In a laboratory experiment, we investigate whether the presence of seller avatars affects trading behavior in a market. We contrast markets without avatars with markets where avatars truthfully represent traders and markets where avatars can be freely changed at any time and may thus be chosen strategically. At the aggregate level, we find that the presence of truthful avatars increases the trustwothiness of sellers, but that this effect is undone when avatars can be chosen strategically. We do not detect aggregate effects on buyers´ trusting choices. Female avatars are more trusted, and correspondignly in the treatment with free avatar choice men are more likely to represent themselves with a female avatar than vice versa.

Keywords: online marketplaces; market design; trust and trustworthiness; avatars; strategic behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C90 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17pages
Date: 2021-02-02, Revised 2023-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-ict and nep-pay
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2023, vol. 206, pp. 251-261

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Journal Article: On the Internet you can be anyone: An experiment on strategic avatar choice in online marketplaces (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mub:wpaper:2021-02

DOI: 10.5817/WP_MUNI_ECON_2021-02

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