Social Media, Sociality, and Survey Research

CHAPTER 6

Second Life as a Survey Lab: Exploring the Randomized Response Technique in a Virtual Setting

Ashley Richards and Elizabeth Dean,

RTI International

Second Life is an online virtual world that provides a three-dimensional (3-D) graphical, interactive environment. This environment represents (and often expands on) real life. Because Second Life content is completely user-generated, researchers can design and manipulate environments and avatars to test social interactions with a consistency that is not possible in the real world. This chapter describes the benefits of conducting research in Second Life and reports findings from the authors' own research in which we used Second Life to evaluate a method of asking survey questions, the randomized response technique (RRT).

OVERVIEW OF SECOND LIFE

Second Life (http://secondlife.com) is an online 3-D virtual world used internationally for gaming, socializing, and creating art. A significant component of this virtual world is its economy, in which users buy and sell virtual goods and services. To support this economy, Second Life maintains its own currency, the Linden dollar, which exchanges with the U.S. dollar at a rate of about 250 Lindens to 1 U.S. dollar, as of December 8, 2012 (Shepherd, 2012). In Second Life, users represent themselves with highly customized avatars, or digital self-representations, which vary from quasirealistic presentations of the users' real-life characteristics to fantastical creatures, robots, vampires, ...