Proteus effect

The Proteus effect describes a phenomenon in which the behavior of an individual, within online virtual worlds, is changed by the visual characteristics of their avatar. This change is due to the individual’s knowledge about the behaviors that other users who are part of that virtual environment typically associate with those characteristics. Like the adjective protean (meaning versatile or mutable), the concept’s name is an allusion to the shape changing abilities of the Greek god Proteus. The Proteus effect was first introduced by researchers Nick Yee and Jeremy Bailenson at Stanford University in June 2007.