Do username/avatar/gender affect perceived suspicousness?

[Postie]

I'm not sure if a topic like this has come up before, but I'm wondering if certain things can give players a slight edge when it comes to things like "gut" reads or first impressions.

For example, if someone had a username with unsavory connotations, like "iamdeath" or "Traitor186", would people be more likely to think them scum? Would the opposite be true of names containing elements that imply innocence, such as "lilywhite" or "cleric"? I'd imagine "trying too hard" names like "PinkFlufflyKitten" or "DefinitelyInnocent" would flip it right back round again.

How about avatars? Do the same kinds of principles apply? Does colour choice matter?

Regarding gender, do women have a small advantage due to the "Women are Wonderful" effect?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[Titus]

Avatars matter.

[popsofctown]

I've played mafia here a long while, and people don't usually talk about username and avatar influence that much. If there's an impact, it must be small. When trying to assess an unknown it seems like our thoughts would be suggestible and an avatar would easily sway, but I think what tends to happen is that after reading so much so much posting from a person, the nasty avatar becomes just one data point and it ends up being a drop in the bucket in a sea of impressions.

I tend to worry a lot about whether avatars bias me but I can't identify a solid pattern where it wrecks my reads.

I think avatars and usernames probably have the biggest impact on whether or not lurkers end up getting a pass or end up policy lynched, since lurkers provide the least information to dilute the potential influence. It's like a small sugar packet in a very small cup of water.


Another angle to look at it is whether your username and avatar affects your own playstyle. I sometimes wonder if "IAmInnocent" would play his games a little differently if his username wasn't constantly reminding himself to make survivor tells.

My avatar is a villian that can be perceived as a good guy depending on how you look at the work of art. I feel like it has nice mafia flavor that way. For those unfamiliar it just looks pretty neutral. More importantly Vi made it for me.

It seems like walking a minefield to discuss women/men in mafia. I will step on a landmine and blow myself up by saying that I think it's impossible to say if women are getting an "advantage" or "disadvantage" in mafia, because I feel like women, as a group and on average, approach the game differently and play the game differently from men. So even if you looked at women's winrates and saw them to be higher or lower, it would be difficult to say whether it is due to them being treated differently in an external way, or if the group's trends of playing in different ways is more/less effective. Even if you tried to study it based on people who registered the opposite gender from the one they identify with IRL, I think you wouldn't get valid data since they have an advantage or disadvantage from people trying to read the wrong chromosome out of their posts (probably an advantage, unless it got them mislynched a lot because "something is off").

[Ankamius]

I think whatever avatar I'm using at the time influences how I play, which influences how I'm read.

Namely, I haven't lost a single scumgame since I stopped using avatars that can be seen as angry or antagonistic. My best town game to date was during this period, too.

[Postie]

I think avatars and usernames probably have the biggest impact on whether or not lurkers end up getting a pass or end up policy lynched, since lurkers provide the least information to dilute the potential influence. It's like a small sugar packet in a very small cup of water.

Good point. I have seen someone justify lynching one lurker over another because said lurker had an ugly avatar, and I'd probably do so myself, if I'm honest.

Another angle to look at it is whether your username and avatar affects your own playstyle. I sometimes wonder if "IAmInnocent" would play his games a little differently if his username wasn't constantly reminding himself to make survivor tells.

I think whatever avatar I'm using at the time influences how I play, which influences how I'm read.

Namely, I haven't lost a single scumgame since I stopped using avatars that can be seen as angry or antagonistic. My best town game to date was during this period, too.

Username and avatar influencing the person whom they belong to is something I hadn't thought about. That's pretty interesting, actually.

[saulres]

I suggest DonJosh get a less aggressive avatar because there's an emotional part of me responding to his tone of voice and the spastic head.

His avatar was the "spastic head", an angry head moving back and forth as though yelling at the viewer.

[Espeonage]

Avatar is big. I remember when changing your avatar while in a game was a scumtell because of how it made peole see you differently and people would try to use it to their advantage as scum.

[pirate mollie]

does anybody else not want to lynch not_mafia ever cos they are mesmerized by the cow's udders swaying back and forth

[Flubbernugget]

I was mesmerized by marquis's Pokémon avi and I fucking hate Pokémon

[Flubbernugget]

Also my alignment has been pegged fairly accurately since I stopped playing 8 games at a time

[Vi]

All of them matter, but avatar especially since that's the big distracting box that goes with every post.

[sthar8]

ime, gender is a per poster thing. When ETL started posting as a man, she noted that some users were meaner and others were nicer than during games she played as a woman.

[Yosarian2]

They probably do.

For a while, I had a signature that just said

[subliminal message] Yosarian is town [/subliminal]

I have no idea if it actually worked, but hey.

[saulres]

UNVOTE: Yosarian

...

I don't know why I did that...

[Kagami]

Word on the street is that anime avatars are the best. Especially animated gifs that seem to mock the reader.

[Elbirn]

Avatar and gender are super important.

If your avatar is cool, endearing, cute, kawaii, or in any way notable or memorable (or failing that yes just have an anime avatar), people will like you. Think about it, whether you are consciously aware of it, or whether you'd like to admit it or not, the very first thing you notice and judge a person on is their physical appearance. Your avatar is the internet equivalent of that. It is a representation of you, and if all I know of you is your avatar, and your avatar is the best, congratulations, I now like you more than the other 11 people in this game that I may or may not want to kill.

Taking it to a bit less of a sociological point, I think avatars can sometimes, in an odd way, indicate Internet savviness, and therefore intellect kinda? Like let's say someone's got an avatar that screams Web 1.0, or its some archaic viral image or something. You'd think that person not very familiar with the interwebs. Maybe they're an old person. Maybe they're not fit for this world, this world of Internety murder games. And so they move down your list of people you are endeared to.

Now, gender. I think a lot of people don't like the idea of murdering a girl. I think when you get right down to it a lot of mafia is a popularity contest where the most charismatic people reign, and women tend to excel at being liked. Honestly I'd hazard a guess and say that women are lynched less often than men, but I have no statistics and am talking out my ass.

Tldr mafia is all about being liked

[Titus]

What you posted is why I changed my avatar Elbrin.

[SilverWolf]

I thought I would get in trouble with Wolf in my username but I figured with a wolf avatar, that would explain that I just like wolves, not werewolves.

Although that werewolf joke gets thrown at me a lot where people ask if I kill vampires. LOL

I don't think it's made any difference in regards to scumreads or townreads. My play has a lot more to do with that. My gender doesn't mean anything either because I constantly have to tell people I'm a she and I don't know if that's because more males play mafia than females or because it's just a default thing or whatever but I haven't noticed being treated any different for being female regarding if scum or town wants to kill me or not.

[Ranmaru]

On avatars: Imagine a newb who is trollish, posts with this avatar:



Conclusion: That poster being new, and arrogant in a way, made him/her sound annoying. In that case, the person was scum, who I chose to pressure early game, and was an easy lynch. If you want to sound smart, using that as an avatar is deff not the first thing you'd want to do.

That was an interesting tidbit about gender. I think the gender thing depends on how willing people are in lynching whoever to truly find scum, and how 'cliquey' they are. Consider a town of all women, they'd have to lynch themselves, amirite? (I think RC hosted a game for girls only) Yet I can see some people having a hard time with that, but not all, especially if the person is serious about mafia.

---

How about a mafia game for only men? What would happen???

[Elbirn]

We would kill each other without remorse, after a few rounds of "drink the beer", "punch yourself in the face", and of course a dick measuring contest. Having thus determined the alpha, all of the lesser men would be lynched in ascending order until a conclusion reached.

[pieguyn]

Avatar and gender are super important.

If your avatar is cool, endearing, cute, kawaii, or in any way notable or memorable (or failing that yes just have an anime avatar), people will like you. Think about it, whether you are consciously aware of it, or whether you'd like to admit it or not, the very first thing you notice and judge a person on is their physical appearance. Your avatar is the internet equivalent of that. It is a representation of you, and if all I know of you is your avatar, and your avatar is the best, congratulations, I now like you more than the other 11 people in this game that I may or may not want to kill.

Taking it to a bit less of a sociological point, I think avatars can sometimes, in an odd way, indicate Internet savviness, and therefore intellect kinda? Like let's say someone's got an avatar that screams Web 1.0, or its some archaic viral image or something. You'd think that person not very familiar with the interwebs. Maybe they're an old person. Maybe they're not fit for this world, this world of Internety murder games. And so they move down your list of people you are endeared to.

Now, gender. I think a lot of people don't like the idea of murdering a girl. I think when you get right down to it a lot of mafia is a popularity contest where the most charismatic people reign, and women tend to excel at being liked. Honestly I'd hazard a guess and say that women are lynched less often than men, but I have no statistics and am talking out my ass.

Tldr mafia is all about being liked

i saw the title of this thread and i immediately knew i'd find you in here posting something like this.

[Cheery Dog]

(or failing that yes just have an anime avatar)

No, those are always scum.

[Cheetory6]

[Ether]

Consider a town of all women, they'd have to lynch themselves, amirite? (I think RC hosted a game for girls only) Yet I can see some people having a hard time with that, but not all, especially if the person is serious about mafia.

If this is a real problem that real people have, which I am not convinced of, then I am pretty sure most of those people would be men.

[CB]

I think avatar, gender, Title, Awards, Color of Username all have a pretty big effect