Give-Me-A-Hand: The Effect of Partner’s Gender on Collaboration Quality in Virtual Reality
Amal Yassien, Elhassan Makled, Passant Elagroudy, Nouran Sadek, Slim Abdennadher
Abstract
Avatar appearance, especially gender, influences user behavior in virtual environments (VE). However the effect is often examined only as a co-variant. In this paper, we use technology to empower individuals beyond traditional societal gender roles to effectively collaborate in virtual environments. We specifically investigate the impact of the partner’s avatar gender on the quality of collaboration in the VE, while performing an inherently male-dominated task. We designed a virtual garage, where pairs of same (C1) and mixed (C2) gender repair cars collaboratively. We evaluated the interaction using a collaboration questionnaire adopted from Team Effective Questionnaire (TEQ). Our results show that same-gender pairs were perceived as more productive and supportive. We envision that our work aids developers and researchers in enhancing the collaboration quality by supporting group cohesion and positive interactions.