Men prefer women with more attractive avatars, too

Gordon was presented to the volunteers in one of four different ways, either as an actress superimposed on a computer generated (CG) background or a CG female on the same background (pictured) – and then either edited to move smoothly or in a jerky, unnatural way.

Overall, women responded more sympathetically to Gordon, with 52 per cent acceding to her request compared with 45 per cent of men. But whereas women’s attitudes were consistent however Gordon was presented, the male volunteers’ attitudes swung sharply. The two human versions got a far more sympathetic hearing than their avatar counterparts. “Clearly, presentational factors influence people’s decisions, including decisions of moral and ethical consequence,” says MacDorman.

“The different response from volunteers could suggest men showed more empathy towards characters that they see as a potential mate,” he says.