作者：Jamie Madigan

我最近看到研究员Jeremy Bailenson在“The Psychologist”中发表一篇有趣的文章。文章中，他概述若干关于查看自身在线表征（游戏邦注：如Xbox 360的虚拟角色或是Nintendo Wii的Miis）将如何影响自身行为的研究结果。

他谈及如何给健康行为建模及植入虚假记忆，但在我看来，文章最有趣、最可怕的部分是，谈及如何通过虚拟角色做广告，进而影响用户行为。即便我们非常清楚这种情况已经出现。

Balenson举例专业会议的研究结果，描述他和同事如何公然在广告中将受试者的头像放置到演员身上。例如，调查中的某位参与者看到自身形象举起虚构苏打品牌后开始傻笑，仿佛默默认可。

调查之后，受试者不仅会更好记住品牌，而且相比其他选择，会对此品牌更有好感，尽管它们清楚自己没有喝过“Blorf brand soda” 或是坐在专业摄影工作室中，针对广告摆姿势（有趣的是，社交/专业网站LinkedIn显然将此理念牢记于心，他们举办这样的活动：将用户头像直接嵌入客户公司的招募资料中，旨在促使用户应聘这些职位）。

这要归功于某些心理学家所谓的“自我认知理论”。简单来说，这一理论指的是，我们倾向基于自己的行为推断自己的态度和信念：“我进行X行为，那么我应该是喜欢X行为的人。”

在某研究中，研究人员给受试者穿着黑白制服。据观察，身着黑白制服的人士更有侵略性及韧性，和他们刻板印象中的邪恶衣柜保持一致。研究人员还表示，这就是为什么专业运动的裁判员对身着深色衣服的团队抱有成见，更倾向处罚他们。将虚拟角色看作是你身着的衣服，你就会发现二者所存在的联系。

如何将此理念运用至电子游戏

尽管如此，我还是要向营销人员提供若干邪恶理论。通过虚拟角色进行营销的想法可以轻松植入Xbox的虚拟角色中。

Red Dead Redemption from marketplace.xbox.com

游戏向完成游戏操作的玩家提供“角色奖励”再平常不过。我的小家伙有个来自《战争机器3》中的Locust面具，来自《Red Dead Redemption》中的墨西哥帽，还有就是《光晕3》中的Guilty Spark玩具。很有趣！但如果我的角色玩的不是RC Warthog模型，而是喝掉一罐Mountain Dew，会出现什么情况？或是追踪《Wired 》杂志的最新期刊？或是吞食Burger King的炸土豆片？根据上述研究，相比传统广告，我更容易记住这些品牌，因为看到自身代表同它们进行互动会带来显著心理影响。

我们甚至无需将此元素藏入Xbox控制面板中。我想游戏能够轻松通过我们的虚拟角色唤起我们的共鸣，在我们等待关卡加载或进行配对时，呈现这样的画面：我们举着盒装Stay-Free女性生理用品或是Kibbles ‘n Bits狗粮。

Kibbles ‘n Bits from globalpackagegallery.com

也许这些是极端例子。但你要知道至少游戏公司会开始运用这些理念交叉推广游戏。如果我是EA,我不会植入带有SSX标记的滑雪板，作为游戏的角色奖励，是吧？我会植入《质量效应》中的NC-17装置。你希望角色在此游戏阶段能够进行想象，游戏上架时玩家能够同自身产生联想。

或者你可以选择让他们举着狗粮包装。这是你的选择。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Marketers: Exploit game players with this clever psychological trick!

by Jamie Madigan

I recently found out, via this article on Mindhacks.com, about an interesting paper by researcher Jeremy Bailenson in The Psychologist. In it, he gives an overview of some recent research on how viewing online representations of ourselves –like our avatars on the Xbox 360 or our Miis on the Nintendo Wii– can affect our behavior.

He talks some about modeling healthy behavior and implanting false memories, but to me the most interesting and possibly the most grim part of the article was where he discussed how to advertise products through avatars and, by doing so, affect consumer behavior. Even if we know perfectly well that it’s happening.

Citing a research presented at a professional conference, Balenson describes how he and a colleague blatantly Photoshopped subjects’ heads onto the bodies of actors in advertisements. One participant in the study, for example, might have viewed an image of himself holding up a fictitious brand of soda and smiling like an idiot, as if to endorse it.

After the study, subjects tended not only to remember the brands better, but actually indicated greater preference to them relative to other options. This despite the fact that they were pretty sure they had never drank “Blorf brand soda” or sat in a professional photography studio and posed for the advertisements in question. (Interestingly, social/professional networking site LinkedIn is apparently taking this concept to heart and running an ad campaign where they insert users’ profile pictures directly into representations of a client companies’ recruitment literature in an attempt at getting people to apply for jobs there.)

This sort of thing may be thanks to what some psychologists call “self-perception theory.” In a nutshell, this theory refers to how we tend to look at our own actions to infer our own attitudes and beliefs: “I’m doing X, so I must be the kind of person who likes X.”

In one study researchers dressed subjects in either black or white uniforms. Those in the black uniforms were observed to act with more aggression and toughness, keeping in line with their stereotypically villainous wardrobe. The researchers also argued (and showed with data) that this is why referees in professional sports are biased against teams that wear dark colors and are more likely to call penalties against them. Think of your avatar as a kind of uniform you wear, and you see the connection.

How to apply this evil to video games

So, given all this I’m going to once again give out some evil ideas to those people in marketing. This kind of marketing-via-avatar think could easily be incorporated into video game avatars like those used by the Xbox.

It’s not unusual for games to give out “avatar awards” for completing in-game actions. My little dude has a Locust mask from Gears of War 3, a sombrero from Red Dead Redemption, and a Guilty Spark toy from Halo 3. Fun! But what if instead of watching my avatar play with a miniature RC Warthog I saw him chugging a can of Mountain Dew? Or perusing the latest issue of Wired magazine? Or gobbling french fries from Burger King? According to the research described above, I’d be more likely to remember or even favor those brands over traditional advertising because there’s something psychologically important about seeing a representation of me interacting with them.

Heck, we don’t even have to bury this kind of thing in the Xbox dashboard. I imagine games could easily pull our likeness in the form of our avatar and display them to us holding up boxes of Stay-Free feminine hygiene products or Kibbles ‘n Bits dog food while we wait for levels to load or matchmaking to happen.

Well, maybe those are extreme examples. But you’d think that game companies would at least start using this kind of thing to cross-promote games. If I were EA, I wouldn’t include a snowboard with a SSX logo as an avatar reward in that game. I mean, the customer has already bought that game, right? I’d include a NC-17 jumper from Mass Effect 3. That’s what you want your customers envisioning themselves playing at that point and that’s what you want them associating with themselves when that game hits the shelves.

Or you can show them holding up a box of dog food. Your choice.（Source：gamasutra）