Introduction

The customization of one’s identity and the curation of one’s self-presentation are more possible now thanks to the technological advances in the years since Sir Timothy John-Berners Lee introduced the World Wide Web in 1991. Globalization was already helping humanity achieve greater cultural pluralism and the advent of social networking platforms in the 2000s furthered the sense that much of the world was becoming a non-local nuclear family.

What this meant on the individual level is that the curation of one’s self-presentation became more important and more complex to manage, as it required maintenance in both the offline and (now) online worlds. Though the virtual public sphere added a layer of complexity to how we negotiate our identities, this new online modality in which we live a portion of our lives also provided new mechanisms for identity customization that are improbable, infeasible, or even impossible in the offline modality of our lives. As such, our study sought to examine individuals’ propensity to engage in social utilitarianism in their self-presentation and identity management in both the online/virtual and the offline/corporeal worlds.

Previous studies have examined the processes that individuals go through in order to affirm their self-presentation and market themselves to themselves and others. Regardless of which impressions people try to express, they will only be effective if others accept them. According to Schlenker & Weigold (1990), good self-presentation always includes a trade-off between two factors: (1) beneficialness (providing the most favorable impression feasible) and (2) credibility (making sure the image you present is believable).

For example, if Kim Hye-jin, the only East Asian American student in her predominantly White American high school in central Vermont, dyes her hair blonde, wears Louis Vuitton boots, and is regularly seen reading Harpers or listening to the latest podcast from BBC, it will afford her less signaling utility than if her British classmate, Hermione Potter, did the exact same thing. That is, the social utility of various self-presentation strategies is relative, and the potential social capital accrued differs as a function of one’s social identity and the social context, among other factors. To that point, if Hye-jin introduced herself using her nickname, Jennifer, it would afford her more social capital than if Hermione went by the nickname Debbie. 

Identity negotiation theory highlights the importance of negotiating sociocultural membership identity in intergroup communication situations (Ting, 2017). Individuals conform to various identity negotiation standards that promote smooth interpersonal relations and foster interpersonal harmony (Swann et al., 2008). Generally, people avoid personas that do not align with essential parts of their identities. Instead, they prefer identities that are more consistent with definitions of who they are. In this way, the identity negotiation process entails a self-presentation strategy wherein individuals perform the identity that they wish to have acknowledged by others (Stets et al., 2000).

Individuals are motivated to construct their identities using the discourses available in their eras and societies (Butler, 1997; Foucault, 2008). Such motivations are just as present in the virtual public sphere as they have always been in the corporeal public sphere. In the realms of social media, profile pictures, MMORPG avatars, and Bitmoji, the mechanisms of identity construction have never been as numerous. Social media and MMORPG, in particular, reveal how one can construct an identity via linguistic performance, behavioral performance, punctuation performance, attire performance, visual digital body performance, personality performance, help-seeking performance, and emoji performance as users assemble their digital identities through the techno social adaptations of various platforms.

In the next section we discuss different aspects of social utilitarian and proceed to discuss its application in one of the most immersive, anthropomorphized, virtual social contexts: online videogames.

Social Utilitarianism

“…the literature has largely overlooked a distinct and potentially critical action that minorities might take to try to avoid anticipated discrimination: changing how they present themselves — especially in relation to racial cues” (Kang et al., 2016, p. 3).

Social utilitarianism encompasses the tools people employ to manage others’ perceptions of who they are for social reward optimization (Goffman, 1963). For instance, "Some recognizable names from the 18th century such as George Elliot and George Sand were pseudonyms for female authors who preferred to publish under a male name (Eleanor Blau, 1989)" (McAlpine, 2015). In short, female authors published their work using a male name to increase the likelihood that their work would be taken seriously. 

Another good in-person example of social utilitarianism took place in 2020. A Black Indianapolis homeowner named Carlette Duffy felt that her property had been undervalued in two previous evaluations (Planas, 2021). For the third appraiser's house visit, Carlette went to considerable pains to keep her race hidden, including removing photographs of herself and her relatives, and had a White acquaintance pretend to be her brother. As a result, the appraisal value of Carlette Duffy's house had more than doubled. According to the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, Duffy's home was evaluated for $125,000 the first time, $110,000 the second time, and ultimately $259,000 the third time when she hid the fact that a Black person lived there.

In a similar real estate appraisal scenario in Florida, Alex Horton (White husband) remained in the house with the real estate appraiser as Adena Horton (Black wife) & their son (Multiracial) snuck out the back (Young & McMahon, 2020). They also took down all family photos, any pictures of Black people, and hid items associated with Blackness. As a result, "the Hortons received a second appraisal — $465,000 — 41% higher than the first amount" of $330,000 (Young & McMahon, 2020). Young & McMahon (2020) quoted Andre Perry's perfectly poignant statement that "When we look at Black assets, we judge them like we judge Black people. And so we reduce the value."

In a similar real estate appraisal scenario in Florida, Alex Horton (White husband) remained in the house with the real estate appraiser as Adena Horton (Black wife) & their son (Multiracial) snuck out the back (Young et al., 2020). They also took down all family photos, any pictures of Black people, and hid items associated with Blackness. As a result, "the Hortons received a second appraisal — $465,000 — 41% higher than the first amount" of $330,000 (Young et al., 2020). (Young et al., 2020). quoted Andre Perry's perfectly poignant statement that "When we look at Black assets, we judge them like we judge Black people. And so we reduce the value."

Interactive Performativity

People derive social rewards from the manner in which they interact with their peers in various social contexts, and this is true in both offline and online interactions. An everyday example of this in the virtual public sphere is the way that people use emojis, punctuation patterns/rules that are accepted (and largely expected) in digital interactions though they are ill-advised in any offline language courses, filters that change aspects of photos to communicate various aesthetics and/or moods, and other methods that people use to portray themselves in a favorable way. It is worth considering the extent to which individuals perceive that such actions are effective – or at least reinforcing - whether measured in views, LIKES, retweets, comments, and/or one’s personal self-appraisal.

Emojis and Punctuation

Emojis are a significant aspect of social behavior in today's digital world. Emojis are pictographs used during communication (Miller et al., 2016) and they have become a common mode of communication (Barbieri et al., 2016). Moreover, in the realm of human courtship, emojis can be used strategically as affective signals (Gesselman et al., 2019). Gesselman et al. study found that those who use more emojis with prospective partners before the first date had higher emotional and physical intimacy with them and were more likely to have success in forming a relationship with them. However, understanding the precise context of an emoji is not abundantly straightforward. Emojis can be used ironically or intentionally, and often one emoji can pertain to many different interpretations. 

In addition, decades of research finds that women report using significantly more exclamation points than men, and men are more likely to report that they generally do not use exclamation points in their digital interactions (Scates, 1981); (Rubin et al., 1992); (Herring, 1994); (Winn et al., 2001) (Colley et al., 2002) (Waseleski, 2006).

Taken together, it is likely that women interact in a more expressive manner than men in the virtual public square.

Filters

Compared to men, women tend to be more concerned with, judged more for, and experience more consequences based their appearance (Buss et al., 2020).  As a result, women are more likely to alter their appearance for socially utilitarian reasons (Krems et al., 2020), such as more attractive women being more likely to receive help from strangers (Bhogal et al., 2016), attractive servers earning more tips from customers (Parrett, 2015), women wearing cosmetics sell more retail products (Kulesza et al., 2014), and women concerned with economic scarcity are more likely to alter their appearance for the acquisition of resources (Netchaeva et al., 2016)..

Posting pictures facilitates social interaction in the virtual public sphere (Lin et al., 2012). According to Bakhshi et al. (2015), filtered pictures are 21% more likely to be viewed and 45% more likely to receive comments than unfiltered photos. Filters are used regularly for different reasons. For some, using a filter may mean blurring or hiding blemishes. For others, it may mean acquiring a tan without investing the time, sunscreen, and skin cancer risk of going out and getting one.

Moreover, the use of filters is influenced by the standards of different cultures and what would reap the most utilitarian benefits.  For example, Varghese (2017) examined the lightning-filter use behavior of Indian women who shared their posts on social media. Varghese discusses Indian women’s desire to have lighter skin and connects it to why light-skinned Bollywood actors are the ones with the most success in the Indian movie industry. It turns out that Indian women making themselves appear whiter, confers socially utilitarian benefits. According to Varghese (2017), Indian women who appeared less South Asian and more White received more LIKES and interest from men.

While for some, using a lightning filter would mean maximizing their utilitarian rewards, the opposite holds true for others. A lightening filter would mean that they would feel ‘washed out’. Instead, these individuals may opt for a filter that would give their photos a bronzed tan. In America, having tanned skin is culturally popular. A study by(Gillen et al., 2015). found that individuals tend to rate tan people more favorably than their non-tanned counterparts in the US culture and hiring context. For these individuals, the social utilitarian cost of exposure to UV light may be worth it when they reap the utilitarian benefits of having tanned skin, and in turn, more positive reinforcement from society.

It could be the case that the strategies individuals employ reaches a state of habitus, an action executed with the same regularity as brushing one’s teeth or taking a shower. At that point, it would no longer be a social strategy consciously adopted for social capital maximization. Rather, it would be an act enacted under a kind of behavioral autopilot, such that the action would continue even when it was no longer necessary or socially profitable. In addition, it is worth considering that actions can be appraised as reinforcing despite being ineffective and vice-versa. In this way utilitarianism can be understood as operating both actively and passively, by effect and by essence.

For instance, wearing glasses has socially utilitarian benefits even if the wearer dislikes wearing them. Utilitarian rewards can be accrued incidentally, with literally no intention from the person benefiting from it. If Priya wore contacts but they were bad for her eyes and she was forced to switch to glasses against her will, the utilitarian benefit of the glasses is embedded in their essence given that glasses are easier for others to visually see.

Indeed, the saliency of glasses at a distance (compared to contact lenses) is socially consequential. Glasses increase individuals’ odds of a favorable verdict in court (Brown, 2011), decrease perceptions of forcefulness and increase perceptions of intelligence (Terry et al., 1993), and Black individuals wearing glasses are perceived as less aggressive/threatening and more attractive/ friendlier (Brown, 2011). Thus, Priya may experience gains in her social capital when her ophthalmologist forces her to switch to glasses even though she dislikes glasses and is otherwise oblivious as to how they are beneficial to both her ability to see and how people see her.

Code-Switching

Code-switching entails shifting one's expression of speech, demeanor, appearance, and language in order to maximize others' comfort in return for fair treatment, quality service, as well as other opportunities (McCluney et al., 2021). To optimize the comfort of others in exchange for favorable treatment, code-switching typically means changing one's manner of speaking, dressing, acting, and expressing oneself.  People may create a self-brand with strategic adaptations to their presentation that help optimize their payoffs in the neoliberal marketplace of their platform of choice. They know how to effectively code-switch based on the respective audiences. This includes engaging in the strategic utilization of bitmojis, adherence to digital punctuation norms, and emoji use behavior in a manner they feel will produce the optimal ratio of corporeal benefits/rewards relative to costs.

Utilitarian Management of Various Social Identities

The process of utilitarianism includes a self-presentation strategy where the individual socially performs to decide who they are. We are constantly confronted with various forms of risk in our everyday lives. Hence, a key consideration for individuals is deciding how much can be rationalized to risk ‘x’ to avoid the expense of ‘y’ and vice versa. The utilitarian calculation requires that the benefits and costs arising from our actions be attributed to values and correlated with the benefits and costs resulting from other actions (Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, 2014). Redmond (2015) has built considerably on the principle of social trade, where parties pursue benefits in their exchanges where the incentives are more significant than the expenses.

It seems that each individual has a perceived standard of perfection (or at least optimization). Since individuals do not always have the means to achieve their standard of perfection in real life, the next best is to vicariously experience their standard of perfection through one or more of their virtual identities. In other words, online identities can be deliberately crafted in ways that a real-life identity cannot, and individuals employ strategies to construct a favorable online self relative to their offline self in order to form a co-present identity in today’s information age.

For example, physical improvements do not occur as quickly and are not as readily effective, and, of course, some improvements such as filters are not possible in the real world. However, an online self is made up of multiple facets that can be modified and improved with a mere click of a button. The public self, the "official" version of the person that they present to the world, requires routine curation in virtual spaces (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, eHarmony).

For conceptual clarity, it is important to note that code-switching is under the umbrella of utilitarianism, but they are not the same thing. Acts of codeswitching are utilitarian, but not all utilitarian acts are code-switching. An example of social utilitarianism that is not code-switching would be leaving an expired annual parking permit on your car so that people who may walk by in the parking lot know that you have the right to be parked there. For a person who has been racially profiled in the past, this would reduce the risk of harassment or unnecessary interrogation. In this case, the parking permit is more informative than the person’s phenotype. It keeps them safe, especially the expired annual permits, because it shows a long-term presence.

Cyberspace is now a common venue for people to meet and foster meaningful relationships (Steinkuehler et al., 2006). Thus, the online context offers a satisfactory facsimile of social connection to satiate needs for belongingness. According to the social compensation hypothesis, people who struggle to make social connections in face-to-face interactions will present themselves in socially utilitarian ways in social networks to enhance their interpersonal lives via online relationships (Schouten et al., 2007). In the following section we will consider how this plays out in the MMORPG (online videogame) context.

MMORPG Videogames

Given their potential consequences in the social world, the influence of games on social utilitarian strategies and approaches to social interaction should continue to be investigated. Given their potential for societal effect, videogames should be seriously examined rather than disregarded as a pastime for children. To the degree that video games could affect racial stereotypes, sexual attitudes, immersion tends to intensify that because games are interactive. Gameplay affects players’ racial stereotypes (Behm et al., 2014), sexist attitudes (Breuer, et al., 2015), and gender stereotypes (Kondrat, 2015). Videogames’ “interactivity and immersive experience will intensify the effects” (Yi, 2019).

Videogames are among the most engaging, interactive, immersive, and reinforcing artistic mediums. As such, they must be interrogated as rigorously as television, which has been an instrument of transportation for prevailing ideologies of gender socialization & racial socialization (Chang et al., 2015).World of Warcraft; (Consalvo, 2013).The Sims; (Daniels et al., 2012).. Blowing it off as if no one cares about games only succeeds in trivializing the increasing necessity to scrutinize their influence.

The norms of the real world, particularly in relation to sex, remain influential in the virtual distant worlds of MMORPG videogames (Eklund, 2011; Lehdonvirta et al., 2012; Palomares & Lee, 2010; Yee & Bailenson., 2007). Through the avatar and the freedom in its customization, the avatars embed in themselves the desires of the users in how they want to be perceived in the virtual space (Mancini et al., 2017)..

“The avatars are not the original bodies of the subjects, but they stand for them as interactive representations of the “original” subjects just like the picture archived in the social networks” (Liberi, 2018).

People may make ideally attractive avatars as they are more likely to be sought as friends by other avatars/gamers (Fong et al., 2015). As such, East Asian, Black, Hispanic, South Asian/Indian, or Middle Eastern MMORPG gamers are less likely to create an East Asian, Black, Hispanic, South Asian/Indian, or Middle Eastern avatar for an MMORPG game world in which a significant part of your experience and success is based on your interactions with other real-life gamers (Blascovich et al., 2011); (Jong-Eun Roselyn Lee, 2014); (Kafai et al., 2010). .  This is also associated with many gamers with physical disabilities creating avatars whose visual appearance differs from their corporeal selves (He et al., 2015) ; (Park et al., 2022).

Indeed, attractiveness matters for social desirability regardless of avatar sex (Dehn et al., 2000); (Messinger et al., 2008) ; (Nowak et al., 2005) ; (Principe et al., 2013) ; (Yee et al., 2009). though attractiveness is more important for female avatars than male avatars (Waddell et al., 2015), which is consistent with the ubiquitous influence of the male gaze in the real world (Bar-Tal & Saxe, 1976). From a traditional gender attitudes perspective, women always yield to others, while men are supposed to play a dominant role in sexual relationships (Kiefer et al., 2007)..  As such, a female avatar (with a female name) who sends a message seeking assistance in the in-game chat is far more likely to see many male avatars show up to assist her than a male avatar who does the same thing (Willis, 2021).1 The interaction between these two observations creates a pattern in which female avatars seeking assistance are more likely to receive it than male avatars, and female avatars’ attractiveness influences the acquisition and maintenance of male avatars’ attention/interest. In line with this, female avatars take more time with customizations, applying makeup, and/or coordinating outfits, regardless of the sex of the gamer (Martey et al., 2014). Davies et al. (2008) found that attractive women could successfully get male strangers to perform favors for them, “only to discover that the persuaders were not physically attracted to them.”  Put simply, if a female avatar is not attractive enough, a male avatar is not going to spend the 5 to 20 (sometimes 30) minutes to help her complete a dungeon, defeat a dragon, or some other challenging task in the game world.

In-game purchasing data suggest that female avatars are aware of this. While many items within a game can be obtained as rewards for quests, battles, or otherwise free of virtual or real charge, other specialized items must be purchased using actual real-world money. These items may be functional (provide some unique bonus on magic or defense) or decorative (purely cosmetic value). Female avatars are more likely to purchase decorative items for self-presentation (Kim et al., 2012). Notably, this holds true regardless of the sex of the gamer as both women and men playing as female avatars purchased more decorative items for the avatars.

In addition, more male gamers genderswap to play as female avatars than female gamers genderswap to play as male avatars (Ducheneaut et al., 2006); (Isaksson, 2012) ; (Martey et al., 2014) ; (Willis, 2021); (Yee, 2011).; however, see Zhou et al., 2022 for research on female gamers’ gender-swapping). As explained in Woman Like Me (Willis, 2021), there are tremendous benefits to playing as a woman in MMORPG. The difference between playing as a Persian woman with a light-medium skin tone and playing as a Black male is equivalent to playing on easy mode versus hard mode. Life as a woman in MMORPG is the equivalent of playing the game on easy mode thanks to the preferential treatment we receive as female avatars from male avatars.

In most games, race is used as a heuristic cue of sociocultural attributes that gamers attach to various non-playable characters (npcs) based on their digital phenotype. As such, ethnoracial identities are reduced to a storytelling device that gamers use to orient the protagonist’s interactions with npcs in single player (offline) games, and ethnoracial identities are utilized to maximize social utilitarian outcomes in MMORPGs.

Social rewards such as being socially embraced, feeling valued, and desirable to others can be acquired through the interactions individuals have with other people (Kawamichi et al., 2017). Given that under a social utilitarian framework, people want to maximize benefits and rewards and reduce costs, we believe that people will perform their identify in a way that would optimize their outcomes. In this era of globalization, the virtual global public sphere we all carry via the phone in our pockets and on our other devices uniquely affords us the opportunity to optimize our self-presentation in the pursuit of social rewards. Thus, we conducted this exploratory study to assess how individuals present themselves in virtual spaces.

Methods

Participants

Participants were 370 undergraduate students (Mage = 20.31; range = 18-37; 302 females and 68 males; 41 bisexuals, 299 heterosexuals) at a university in the United States. The ethnoracial composition of the sample was as follows: 49.6% East Asian, 20.7% Hispanic, 12.4% White, 8.5% half-White Multiracial, 2.8% South Asian Indian, 4.4% Middle Eastern, and 1.7% inter-minority multiracial. All participants were recruited using the SONA system (Fidler, 1997) and were given class credit compensation for their participation in this study. In addition, this study took place during the 100% Zoom year, starting in Fall of 2020 and concluding in 2021.

Procedure

This study was approved by the institutional review board at the University of California San Diego (approval code: 201524XX; approval date: 10/5/2020). All participants completed an informed consent form before receiving and starting the survey. Participants began the survey by filling out demographic questions and then completed assessment questions regarding their actual and online identities. The duration of the time spent on the survey was approximately one hour. After participants completed the questionnaire material, they were debriefed about the study and assigned research credit.

Measures

We constructed a questionnaire survey to assess the utilitarian nature of identity formation, emoji-use, and punctuation use. The survey included questions that asked about demographics, personality traits, confidence, self-esteem, code-switching, avatar creation, and Bitmoji creation.  

Results

Digital Interactions and Social Media

Punctuation Use

A chi-square test of independence found a significant effect for sex and using exclamation points in an email or text message, ?2(2, N = 253) = 34.31, p < .001. Women are significantly more likely to use multiple (!!!!) exclamation points (53%) than men (13.7%), and men are more likely to report not using exclamation points that much in general (47.1%) than women (14.9%).  This is consistent with decades of research on gender differences in punctuation use (Scates, 1981) ; (Colley et al., 2002); (Diaz, 2018); (Herring, 1994) ; (Rubin et al., 1992) ; (Waseleski, 2006) ; (Winn et al., 2001).

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