Social Influence in a Distributed Simulation

Abstract

Massively multiplayer environments provide a distributed simulation in which to assess the effects of social influence on individual behaviors. This study used this platform to determine the presence of conformity within a virtual environment, essentially replicating the classic social psychology methodology employed by Asch (see Asch 1952a, 1956) on conformity of responses to perceptual judgment tasks. Experimental confederates acting as users in a distributed simulation provided unanimously incorrect responses to a simple line judgment task. Actual experimental participants varyingly demonstrated conforming behavior in their responses, with some deviations from Asch's findings. Implications for training, particularly in military settings, are discussed as are necessary future research endeavors.