ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

When women make an avatar for an online game, they tend to picture themselves in revealing outfits.

The image is likely to be scantily clad regardless of the shape and look of their chosen character, a study by Canadian scientists published in PLOS ONE magazine said.

The study showed that climatic, ecological and cultural customs did not affect the way people dressed their avatars in the Second Life online game.

“Analysis of hundreds of avatars revealed that virtual females disclose substantially more naked skin than virtual males,” the study said.

More than 400 participants of the experiment were asked to choose a sex, appearance and clothes for their virtual characters.

As a result, 71 percent of virtual males covered up 75-100 percent of their skin, while only 5 percent of virtual females did so.

Meanwhile, 47 percent of virtual women covered only 25-49 percent of their body, compared to 9 percent for male avatars.

“These findings have implications for further understanding how sex-specific aspects of skin disclosure influence human social interactions in both virtual and real settings,” the authors said.