Adaptive Digital Identity Development
Adaptive Digital Identity Development (ADID) is a developing research framework for studying how interaction with an evolving digital representation may influence personal agency and identity-related processes.
A digital representation should not change only because the user selects a new appearance. In Adaptive Digital Identity Development, it can also change as a consequence of what the user repeatedly chooses, does, avoids and prioritises.
The basic principle of Adaptive Digital Identity Development
In Adaptive Digital Identity Development, behaviour produces visible consequences in the digital representation. A user makes decisions and acts within a digital environment. These actions influence the digital state of the representation. The resulting changes become visible to the user and may also affect how the environment responds.
The user can then reflect on these changes and decide whether they recognise them as personally meaningful.
Why Adaptive Digital Identity Development?
Many digital systems allow users to customise an avatar before interaction begins. Adaptive Digital Identity Development is interested in what happens after that point. Instead of asking only what a digital identity should look like, the system also asks what the digital identity is becoming as a consequence of action.
Research question
The project investigates whether repeated interaction with an identity-linked and visibly evolving digital representation can contribute to sustained changes in positive sense of agency. The research also examines self-presence, identity integration and behavioural patterns that emerge during interaction.
Related pages: digital identity, simulation, and why we are developing ADID. Background is summarised under research evidence.