2. Method
2.1. Participants
Thirty-two participants from a pool of students at the
University of Kentucky, half of them male and half of them female,
were given course credit for their participation. This study used a
2 2 mixed-factor design. The within-subjects variable consisted
of the virtual environment in which the social interaction
occurred: Amusement Park (AP) or Lab. The between-subjects factor
was gender. Participants were divided randomly into two
groups that differed in terms of the order in which they experienced
the two environments. Their partner in each setting was a
different avatar controlled by the same real world confederate.