In this post, I would like to get back to a really basic interest of the Leading Virtually group.  There are at least a few prominent articles (see, for example, the Seriosity report and an HBR article) that predict multiplayer online games offer us a preview of the future of the business environment and leadership.  While this may be true, we are interested primarily in the potential of virtual environments for leadership development.  Recent research from Stanford University (also see here) indicates that the attributes or behaviors people exhibit in virtual worlds have “carry over” effects in the real world (look at the full list of publications from the Stanford lab). We believe this characteristic of virtual worlds is likely to make them conducive to leadership development.

I discuss the following in this post:

1. The use of simulations for developing business skills;
2. The feeling of reality in virtual world simulations may make them more effective for developing leadership and other social skills;
3. Research that supports to our arguments; and
4. Some ways in which virtual world simulations can be deployed for developing leadership and social skills.

For a long time, simulations have been used for training of specific skills.  For example, jet pilots are trained on simulators to learn flying skills when an expensive jet can’t easily be risked.  Once the new pilots have a certain level of skill and understanding, they can switch to an actual plane to continue training.  Business students are often trained in strategic management or other business skills on simulation programs, when risking an actual organization is not a viable option.  However, it’s not clear whether simulations provide long lasting results, or whether they can train people for complex thinking and behavioral systems.  This is where newer technologies such as virtual worlds have great promise – they are advanced enough that they are believable.  That is, virtual worlds, and avatars people create in virtual worlds, seem to represent real life to those perceiving them.  If virtual worlds represent real life in the right ways, training in virtual worlds might lead to more long-lasting results than previous types of simulation training. Because virtual worlds are so complex, they also might be useful for training people in more complex skills, such as leadership and other social skills.

Our belief in the potential of virtual worlds stems from some basic social psychology principles and early research in virtual worlds. The first principle is visualization.  For a long time there have been advocates of visualization as a mechanism for behavior change.  Often athletes are trained not only to practice their sport, but also to spend time visualizing themselves performing well.  This may be related to the social psychology principle that with visualization or verbal commitment, individuals have the chance to mentally prepare themselves for something, and to commit to it in their own mind.  Virtual worlds are now complex enough and believable enough that they can serve as convincing versions of reality.  Our theory is that when individuals watch their avatars doing different actions, it registers in a way like visualization, and prepares the mind to take action.  As visualization takes some practice, watching an avatar in a virtual world may be a more accessible way for people to visualize and prepare for action. The underlying mechanism that relates visualization to action may be related to the firing of mirror neurons. These neurons fire up when we perform an action, such as picking up something, as well as when we observe someone else or an image of ourselves perform that action; the firing of mirror neurons can alter one’s brain and prepare it to take the observed action as some preliminary evidence has suggested (see the end of our post titled “The Mind Has a Body of its Own” where we discuss this evidence).

There is some initial evidence that when people watch their avatar take some action in a virtual world, it prepares them to take that action.  In a recent Stanford study, researchers found that individuals who watched avatars resembling themselves doing exercise were more likely to exercise in the short term, compared to those who watched avatars like themselves lounging.  Even more interesting, those who watched avatars resembling themselves exercising were more likely to exercise within 24 hours than those who watched exercising avatars that did not resemble themselves.  We believe these early research results show that when avatars in virtual worlds represent reality to a “real” person, they influence the person’s behavior. The results may also be suggesting that one is persuaded more by a virtual world character that is similar to them or they can identify with.  The role modeling literature might provide some support for this — when role models are liked or identified with, they have a stronger effect on followers or mentees.  All of this suggests that individual behaviors can be changed when individuals view their avatars taking action in a virtual world.

If virtual worlds represent real life to the non-conscious mind (see more on this in “The Mind Has a Body of its Own“), it should be possible to develop social skills such as leadership in a virtual world with lasting results.  Seriosity and IBM released a study that talked about some of the leadership skills and the carry-over to the real life that they noted in World of Warcraft players. (In the HBR article based on this study, the authors say “Among IBM managers with experience in multiplayer online games, nearly half said that being a game leader had improved their real-world leadership capabilities.”)  But those skills were gained after hundreds of hours of playing World of Warcraft.  Businesses cannot afford to let their employees spend these many hours in an attempt to develop leadership skills in them. They want quicker leadership development.

Could virtual worlds be used to help develop leadership skills in less time?  We believe so.  World of Warcraft was designed to be a game, and leadership development is a fortunate side effect.  Achieving the tasks of the game takes a certain amount of time, but leadership training programs designed in virtual worlds such as Second Life or Sun Microsystem’s Wonderland with the primary purpose of training would not take as much time. Training in virtual worlds could be much like conventional training, taking people out of their regular work environment and having a specific training purpose.  Yet at the same time, the fact that virtual worlds represent reality would mean that leadership training “sticks” better.  An example of leadership training might be a task where a person, via their avatar, is asked to find effective ways to influence others to accomplish a task.  Having anonymity behind the avatar might help this training process, since it reduces the risk of being judged or disliked by others (it removes the risk in conducting the task).  Alternatively, leadership training in a virtual world could be done with confederates, as is common in real world experiments and training tasks.

Certainly there are some advantages to training in a virtual world.  First, the environment can be custom made to suit the training.  Boring rooms would be a thing of the past.  Just as organizations take work-related retreats to beautiful spots to do work, virtual training environments can easily and cheaply be designed with aesthetically pleasing features such as trees, flowers, and architecture.  Also, there may be a strong effect simply from watching your avatar, since in the real world a person doesn’t see their own face, movements, or appearance.  This might be a crucial point – consider how often you think about your appearance when you are engrossed in work (probably not often).  The visual of one’s avatar in virtual training is always present, and might be key to having a strong influence on the “real” person’s behavior.

The principles and research we cite here are not definitive – this is a totally new area of research since the technology is so new.  But we think the ideas laid out here can help researchers to wrap their minds around the phenomenon of avatars in virtual worlds, and begin to understand what direction might be fruitful for research and practice.

Related Posts

• The Mind Has a Body of its Own
• Wonderland: A Tool for Online Collaboration