Race and Gender in Second Life

I decided to approach the subject of race and gender in Second Life through the use of a sociological experiment. I would act as 3 different avatars: a black male, a white female, and a neutral avatar (I ended up using a robot). I would log onto each for a period of 20 minutes. During those 20 minutes I would count how many people I was approached by, the nature of the conversation, as well as reactions to a simple question, as well as their reaction when I told them my true identity. The question asked was how to build a simple object. As a black male I was approached by only 1 person. He was new to Second Life and asked for interesting places to go to. I walked up to 3 people and asked how to build. Two of them were patient and walked me through the process. The third said he was meeting someone else and could not talk. Upon telling them that I was actually a white male, one of them said he didn't care while the other inquired as to why I changed my race. I told him it was for a class project and he was interested and asked more about.
As a white female I was approached 3 times. Two times for casual conversation and one who asked me to go to a bar in SL with him. All three people I asked for help with building obliged me and talked for a while. Upon being told that I was actually a man at the end one person didn't seem to mind, one just walked away, and a third just transported elsewhere.
As a robot I got approached twice. Both times I was asked where I had bought the avatar. I pointed them to the freebie room I had gotten it from. In regards to building of the three people asked 2 helped, but were not quite as friendly about it as they had been when I was a human female. When told I was not actually a robot none of them were surprised.
I didn't see any racism or gender discrimination in SL but people seemed to be more friendly when they thought I was a female. Interestingly, I was only approached by males in all three characters. I didn't get much insight as to why people stopped talking to me when they found out I was male because the ones who minded just stopped talking to me. I imagine it is because I crushed their fantasy.