Avatar Appearance Research Articles

The effect of prosocial video games on individual altruism: the role of avatar appearance and gender

The effect of prosocial video games on individual altruism: the role of avatar appearance and gender

Avatar Appearance and Behavior of Potential Harassers Affect Users' Perceptions and Response Strategies in Social Virtual Reality (VR): A Mixed-Methods Study

Sexual harassment has been recognized as a significant social issue. In recent years, the emergence of harassment in social virtual reality (VR) has become an important and urgent research topic. We employed a mixed-methods approach by conducting online surveys with VR users ( N = 166) and semi-structured interviews with social VR users ( N = 18) to investigate how users perceive sexual harassment in social VR, focusing on the influence of avatar appearance. Moreover, we derived users' response strategies to sexual harassment and gained insights on platform regulation. This study contributes to the research on sexual harassment in social VR by examining the moderating effect of avatar appearance on user perception of sexual harassment and uncovering the underlying reasons behind response strategies. Moreover, it presents novel prospects and challenges in platform design and regulation domains.

Digital Twin-Based Alternate Ego Modeling and Simulation: Eva Herzigová as a 3D MetaHuman Avatar

Abstract Due to Dimension Studios and Unsigned Group, by likeness and movement digitization, the human supermodel Eva Herzigová’s highly realistic metahuman and 3D digital twin lead to perpetual career extension (e.g., on virtual runway shows by catwalk replication or in advertising campaigns by particular pose adoption), including in virtual worlds such as metaverse spaces, by use of extended reality technologies, in terms of virtual clothing, digital hair, skin texture, facial and body expressions, and makeup styling as avatar appearance and persona. In this paper, we show how, by likeness capturing (e.g., signature walk by motion capture shoot for face and body movement tracking) and virtual clothing, Eva Herzigová’s hyperreal 3D avatar (lifelike 3D digital human clone or realistic virtual human) is configured with subsequent restyled hair and make-up, 3D clothing modeling, and extended reality fashion shows on virtual catwalks or campaign shoots. We clarify that photographic reference materials and a sensor-based motion capture suit assisted Metahuman Creator in capturing facial and motion data for Eva Herzigová’s digital avatar, configuring realistic depiction and virtual activations of beauty standards, in addition to digital likeness, signature style, talent representation, and narrations, typifying digital human creation and presence in virtual worlds (e.g., for metaverse-based shoots). We conclude that Eva Herzigová’s hyperrealistic 3D digital human twin and MetaHuman avatar operate as a styled virtual alter ego and versatile personal brand extension by motion capture technologies for immersive virtual fashion shows, live video streams and broadcast, and digital wearable modeling.

Human or robot? Exploring different avatar appearances to increase perceived security in shared automated vehicles

Shared Automated Vehicles (SAVs) promise to make automated mobility accessible to a wide range of people while reducing air pollution and improving traffic flow. In the future, these vehicles will operate with no human driver on board, which poses several challenges that might differ depending on the cultural context and make one-fits-all solutions demanding. A promising substitute for the driver could be Digital Companions (DCs), i.e. conversational agents presented on a screen inside the vehicles. We conducted interviews with Colombian participants and workshops with German and Korean participants and derived two design concepts of DCs as an alternative for the human driver on SAVs: a human-like and a robot-like. We compared these two concepts to a baseline without companion using a scenario-based online questionnaire with participants from Colombia (N = 57), Germany (N = 50), and Korea (N = 29) measuring anxiety, security, trust, risk, control, threat, and user experience. In comparison with the baseline, both DCs are statistically significantly perceived as more positively. While we found a preference for the human-like DC among all participants, this preference is higher among Colombians while Koreans show the highest openness towards the robot-like DC.

Auswirkungen der visuellen Flussgeschwindigkeit auf das Radfahrerlebnis in der virtuellen Realität

AbstractApplying virtual reality to exercise has revealed mood- and performance-enhancing properties of immersive media. Social–cognitive theory and the Proteus effect suggest that avatar appearance contributes to this relation by eliciting behavioral changes. Attempting to influence exercise parameters without modifying the virtual avatar, the present study investigated the effects of differing visual flow speeds on physiological and perceived effort during aerobic exercise. Eighty-two university students participated in three separate experimental trials. During each trial, a virtual cycling track was presented at one of three velocities (16, 20, 24 km/h) in counterbalanced order, while participants cycled at a moderate intensity for 20 min. Objective and subjective measures of effort and affective states were recorded every five minutes. With increasing visual flow speed, a linear decrease of heart rate, perceived effort, and arousal and a linear increase of valence were expected. Mixed linear model analyses revealed no significant main effect of visual flow speed on any dependent variable. A nonlinear relation between visual flow speed and heart rate was identified through pairwise comparisons between visual flow conditions.

What is beautiful is good: attractive avatars for healthier dining and satisfaction

PurposeAs technology increasingly integrates into the restaurant industry, avatar servers present a promising avenue for promoting healthier dining habits. Grounded in the halo effect theory and social comparison theory, this study aims to delve into the influence of avatars' appearance, humor and persuasion on healthier choices and customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachThis paper comprises three experimental studies. Study 1 manipulates avatar appearance (supermodel-looking vs normal-looking) to examine its effects on perceived attractiveness, warmth and relatability. These factors influence customer satisfaction and healthy food choices through the psychological mechanisms of social comparison and aspirational appeal. Studies 2 and 3 further refine this theoretical model by assessing the interplay of appearance with humor (presence vs absence) and persuasion (health-oriented vs beauty-oriented), respectively.FindingsResults suggest that avatars resembling supermodels evoke stronger aspirational appeal and positive social comparison due to their attractiveness, thus bolstering healthier choices and customer satisfaction. Moreover, humor moderates the relationship between appearance and attractiveness, while persuasion moderates the effects of appearance on social comparison and aspirational appeal.Research limitations/implicationsThis research bridges the halo effect theory and social comparison theory, offering insights enriching the academic discourse on technology’s role in hospitality.Practical implicationsThe findings provide actionable insights for managers, tech developers and health advocates.Originality/valueDespite its significance, avatar design research in the hospitality sector has been overlooked. This study addresses this gap, offering a guideline for crafting attractive and persuasive avatars.

Developing cue-behavior association for habit formation: A qualitative study to explore the role of avatar in hypertension.

Electronic health (eHealth) has been widely adopted in chronic disease management. Prior studies focused on time-based reminders as a cue to facilitate behavior change intentions, ignoring the development of automatic cue-behavior associations via other cue types. Hence, this study utilized avatar appearance as a visual-based cue to help establish the automatic association between appearance transformation and health behavior to form habits without intention. To better understand users' attitudes and experiences toward applying changes in avatar appearance to develop cue-behavior associations for hypertensive patients. Fifteen participants were recruited in a 14-day experiment. After excluding one participant who dropped out of the experiment, others were randomly assigned to two groups. One group consisted of a visual-based cue (a virtual plant) and basic behavior change techniques (BCTs). The other group only included basic BCTs. Attitudes and experience outcomes were collected by interview, and qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. 57% of participants had been diagnosed with hypertension for more than five years, and more than 50% of participants have experience using mobile apps or wearables. 66% of participants did physical activity more than three times every week. The result shows that tailored time-based reminders, blood pressure monitoring, and daily dietary intake were the most attractive features. Additionally, hypertensive participants have positive attitudes toward avatar appearance as a visual-based cue to develop cue-behavior association, which enhances self-management motivation. This study proposes a visual-based cue design for habit formation and conducts a qualitative method to explore hypertensive patients' perceptions. The findings offer insights from user's perspectives into hypertensive patients' attitudes toward visual-based cues and perception of the connection between avatar appearance and health behavior for self-management. Subsequent discussions present eHealth design guidelines of habit formation from intention, automatic cue-behavior association, and self-management perspectives.

AvatarStudio: Text-Driven Editing of 3D Dynamic Human Head Avatars

Capturing and editing full-head performances enables the creation of virtual characters with various applications such as extended reality and media production. The past few years witnessed a steep rise in the photorealism of human head avatars. Such avatars can be controlled through different input data modalities, including RGB, audio, depth, IMUs, and others. While these data modalities provide effective means of control, they mostly focus on editing the head movements such as the facial expressions, head pose, and/or camera viewpoint. In this paper, we propose AvatarStudio, a text-based method for editing the appearance of a dynamic full head avatar. Our approach builds on existing work to capture dynamic performances of human heads using Neural Radiance Field (NeRF) and edits this representation with a text-to-image diffusion model. Specifically, we introduce an optimization strategy for incorporating multiple keyframes representing different camera viewpoints and time stamps of a video performance into a single diffusion model. Using this personalized diffusion model, we edit the dynamic NeRF by introducing view-and-time-aware Score Distillation Sampling (VT-SDS) following a model-based guidance approach. Our method edits the full head in a canonical space and then propagates these edits to the remaining time steps via a pre-trained deformation network. We evaluate our method visually and numerically via a user study, and results show that our method outperforms existing approaches. Our experiments validate the design choices of our method and highlight that our edits are genuine, personalized, as well as 3D- and time-consistent.

Examining the Proteus Effect in the Context of Healthy Food Choices and Intentions to Eat Healthy: The Role of Avatar Body Size, Avatar Allocation Type, and Visual Perspective

Abstract As avatars gain prominence in health-promoting applications, understanding how health-related avatar appearance characteristics could affect users’ behavior is crucial. Drawing upon the Proteus effect, avatars can positively and negatively affect health behaviors, depending on whether the avatar appearance is aligned with stereotypes about healthy or unhealthy behavior. Investigating avatar appearances is essential to understand potential negative health effects. Three experiments in a non-immersive virtual supermarket examined whether controlling an overweight avatar negatively affected (1) intentions to eat healthy and (2) food choice healthiness in the virtual supermarket, thereby investigating avatar allocation type (Study 1) and visual perspective (Study 2) as moderators. The studies employed 2 (Avatar body size: overweight vs. healthy weight) by 2 (Avatar allocation type: self-assigned vs. experimenter-assigned [Study 1]; Visual perspective: first-person vs. third-person [Studies 2 and 3]) between-subjects designs. None of the studies demonstrated the Proteus effect, and no moderating role of avatar allocation type was found (Study 1). Unexpectedly, controlling an overweight avatar resulted in stronger intentions to eat healthy from a third-person perspective only (Study 2), which led to the hypothesis that the overweight avatar functioned as a fear stimulus. To test this, a health message was added that highlighted obesity as a health risk (Study 3). The addition of this message did not affect intentions to eat healthy and food choice healthiness. The combination of fear appeal and self-perception theory as explanatory frameworks for behavioral responses to avatars opens avenues for new research, such as exploring specific conditions that trigger each effect.

Effects of appearance and gender on pre-touch proxemics in virtual reality.

Virtual reality (VR) environments are increasingly popular for various applications, and the appearance of virtual characters is a critical factor that influences user behaviors. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of avatar and agent appearances on pre-touch proxemics in VR. To achieve this goal, we designed experiments utilizing three user avatars (man/woman/robot) and three virtual agents (man/woman/robot). Specifically, we measured the pre-touch reaction distances to the face and body, which are the distances at which a person starts to feel uncomfortable before being touched. We examined how these distances varied based on the appearances of avatars, agents, and user gender. Our results revealed that the appearance of avatars and agents significantly impacted pre-touch reaction distances. Specifically, those using a female avatar tended to maintain larger distances before their face and body to be touched, and people also preferred greater distances before being touched by a robot agent. Interestingly, we observed no effects of user gender on pre-touch reaction distances. These findings have implications for the design and implementation of VR systems, as they suggest that avatar and agent appearances play a significant role in shaping users' perceptions of pre-touch proxemics. Our study highlights the importance of considering these factors when creating immersive and socially acceptable VR experiences.

The Graphic "I" in Research Comics

ABSTRACT: As academic comics become more common in journals and more researchers are sharing methodologies for the production of academic comics, the appearance of the researcher's avatar in the illustrated article has become an accepted part of the practice. These comics show the researcher as an author, an illustrator, and even a narrative character in a graphic narrative. The practice of illustrating comics-based research has not yet codified how to transmediate academic writing norms into sequential art, or what best practice to apply in embodying the researcher on the page. Through a survey of recently published guides to creating academic comics and research comics, this study proposes several reasons for intentionally including the embodied researcher and suggests conditions when the embodied researcher might best be excluded.

Trans* and gender diverse players: Avatars and gender-alignment

Trans* and Gender Diverse players are a minority who are well-positioned to take advantage of the virtual, anonymous, and invisible nature of video games to overcome offline obstacles. Yet little research has investigated these players, and most works exclude trans* and gender diverse players due to heteronormative assumptions. This article draws on queer game studies to explore trans* and gender diverse players’ performances of gender in video games, particularly through the use of avatars. Forty trans* and gender diverse participants were interviewed to investigate if, how, and why trans* and gender diverse player’s video gaming related to the expression and exploration of their gender-identity, and the effects of these experiences. Through phenomenological thematic analysis, it was found that the participants used video games, particularly avatars, as a method of gender-identity expression. Rather than seeing such players as “gender bending” as proposed in the existing literature, this paper suggests participants used avatar appearance, and supporting features (e.g., pronouns and personality) in this gender-aligning play. The findings of this paper have implications for future games research concerning gender, revealing that gender performances cannot necessarily be identified through external observation.

Being There, and Being Together: Avatar Appearance and Peer Interaction in VR Classrooms for Video-Based Learning

The development of technology and the recent Covid-19 has moved a substantial part of education into online environments, and video-based learning has become a common format of online learning. An alternative to enhance the co-learning experience in video-based online learning is to make use of immersive virtual reality (VR) technology. The current study focused on how to build a sense of being together in an immersive VR classroom for video-based learning, when individual learners can schedule and pace their learning on their own. Two alternative in-class interaction mechanisms for video-based learning were proposed (i.e., real-time interaction and timeline-anchored interaction). The impact of in-class interaction design was investigated, together with the impact of different styles of visual embodiment of learners (i.e., realistic and cartoon-styled), through a laboratory experiment involving 48 participants, and the influences on learners’ immersion in a VR classroom, identification with the avatars, perceived social presence of peer learners, and learning outcomes were analyzed. The results showed that enabling in-class interaction with peer learners in VR classrooms enhances immersion in the learning environment and their identification of peer avatars, as well as helping learners to develop a stronger co-presence and more intimate perception of peers. Whereas real-time interaction improves perceived social presence the most, the reduced learning outcome suggests that it may distract learners from the video. The timeline-anchored interaction, on the other hand, improves social presence at no cost of learning performance. Appearance style, however, has no significant influence on learning experiences and outcomes.

The Influence of Avatar Personalization on Emotions in VR

In this paper, we investigate the impact of avatar personalization on perceived emotions. Avatar embodiment is a crucial aspect of collaborative and social virtual reality (VR) systems. Previous research found that avatar appearance impacts the acceptability of the virtual body and changes users’ behavior. While virtual embodiment has been extensively investigated, we know very little about how embodiment affects users’ experienced emotions. In a user study (N = 40), we applied an autobiographical recall method to evoke happiness and investigated the influence of different types of avatar embodiment (personalized same-gender, personalized opposite-gender, non-personalized same-gender, and non-personalized opposite-gender) on participants’ perceived emotion. We recorded both self-reported assessments and physiological data to observe participants’ emotional responses resulting from the emotions elicited by the use of different avatars. We found significant differences in happiness with the personalized same-gender avatar and the personalized opposite-gender avatar. We provide empirical evidence, demonstrating the influence of avatar personalization on emotions in VR. We conclude with recommendations for users and designers of virtual reality experiences.

Influence of Avatar Facial Appearance on Users’ Perceived Embodiment and Presence in Immersive Virtual Reality

Immersive virtual reality (VR) based on head-mounted displays has been identified as one of the key interaction technologies of the future metaverse, which comprises diverse interconnected virtual worlds and users who traverse between those worlds and interact with each other. Interaction in immersive VR entails the use of avatars that represent users. Previous research has shown that avatar appearance (e.g., body type, body visibility, and realism) affects the senses of embodiment and presence, which are among the key indicators of successful immersive VR. However, research on how the similarity between an avatar’s face and the user’s face affects embodiment and presence is lacking. We conducted a mixed-method experiment with 23 young adults (10 males, 13 females, mean age: 25.22) involving a VR scene with rich embodiment, a virtual mirror, and interaction with a virtual character. The participants were assigned to two groups: Group 1 had avatars based on their own faces, and Group 2 had avatars based on a stranger’s face. The results indicated that Group 1 experienced higher embodiment with no significant differences in presence scores. Additionally, we identified moderate and significant correlations between presence and embodiment, including their subscales. We conclude that the realism and similarity in an avatar’s appearance is important for embodiment, and that both embodiment and presence are intertwined factors contributing to immersive VR user experience.

People, places, and time: a large-scale, longitudinal study of transformed avatars and environmental context in group interaction in the metaverse

Abstract As the metaverse expands, understanding how people use virtual reality to learn and connect is increasingly important. We used the Transformed Social Interaction paradigm (Bailenson et al., 2004) to examine different avatar identities and environments over time. In Study 1 (n = 81), entitativity, presence, enjoyment, and realism increased over 8 weeks. Avatars that resembled participants increased synchrony, similarities in moment-to-moment nonverbal behaviors between participants. Moreover, self-avatars increased self-presence and realism, but decreased enjoyment, compared to uniform avatars. In Study 2 (n = 137), participants cycled through 192 unique virtual environments. As visible space increased, so did nonverbal synchrony, perceived restorativeness, entitativity, pleasure, arousal, self- and spatial presence, enjoyment, and realism. Outdoor environments increased perceived restorativeness and enjoyment more than indoor environments. Self-presence and realism increased over time in both studies. We discuss implications of avatar appearance and environmental context on social behavior in classroom contexts over time.

Immersive Virtual Reality Avatars for Embodiment Illusions in People With Mild to Borderline Intellectual Disability: User-Centered Development and Feasibility Study.

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) has been investigated as a tool for treating psychiatric conditions. In particular, the practical nature of IVR, by offering a doing instead of talking approach, could support people who do not benefit from existing treatments. Hence, people with mild to borderline intellectual disability (MBID; IQ=50-85) might profit particularly from IVR therapies, for instance, to circumvent issues in understanding relevant concepts and interrelations. In this context, immersing the user into a virtual body (ie, avatar) appears promising for enhancing learning (eg, by changing perspectives) and usability (eg, natural interactions). However, design requirements, immersion procedures, and proof of concept of such embodiment illusion (ie, substituting the real body with a virtual one) have not been explored in this group. Our study aimed to establish design guidelines for IVR embodiment illusions in people with MBID. We explored 3 factors to induce the illusion, by testing the avatar's appearance, locomotion using IVR controllers, and virtual object manipulation. Furthermore, we report on the feasibility to induce the embodiment illusion and provide procedural guidance. We conducted a user-centered study with 29 end users in care facilities, to investigate the avatar's appearance, controller-based locomotion (ie, teleport, joystick, or hybrid), and object manipulation. Overall, 3 iterations were conducted using semistructured interviews to explore design factors to induce embodiment illusions in our group. To further understand the influence of interactions on the illusion, we measured the sense of embodiment (SoE) during 5 interaction tasks. IVR embodiment illusions can be induced in adults with MBID. To induce the illusion, having a high degree of control over the body outweighed avatar customization, despite the participants' desire to replicate their own body image. Similarly, the highest SoE was measured during object manipulation tasks, which required a combination of (virtual) locomotion and object manipulation behavior. Notably, interactions that are implausible (eg, teleport and occlusions when grabbing) showed a negative influence on SoE. In contrast, implementing artificial interaction aids into the IVR avatar's hands (ie, for user interfaces) did not diminish the illusion, presuming that the control was unimpaired. Nonetheless, embodiment illusions showed a tedious and complex need for (control) habituation (eg, motion sickness), possibly hindering uptake in practice. Balancing the embodiment immersion by focusing on interaction habituation (eg, controller-based locomotion) and lowering customization effort seems crucial to achieve both high SoE and usability for people with MBID. Hence, future studies should investigate the requirements for natural IVR avatar interactions by using multisensory integrations for the virtual body (eg, animations, physics-based collision, and touch) and other interaction techniques (eg, hand tracking and redirected walking). In addition, procedures and use for learning should be explored for tailored mental health therapies in people with MBID.

Feeling close to a Crab-Thing in virtual reality: Does avatar appearance always matter in forming meaningful connections? A case study

Recent experimental research revealed that people can form meaningful relationships interacting with strangers in virtual reality (VR), with resulting affiliative outcomes (e.g., feelings of closeness) at the same levels as those attained via interactions in other sensory-rich communication modalities. The present preregistered experiment examined whether avatar type and avatar matching in VR influence levels of closeness (and affiliated constructs) generated among previously unacquainted strangers using a validated structured discussion procedure. Based on previous theory and research, we hypothesized that affiliative outcomes would not differ 1) regardless of whether the interacting avatars appeared to be human or not, and 2) regardless of whether there was a (mis)match in avatar type between interactants. Two hundred and four previously unacquainted undergraduate students were randomly assigned to interact in VR as pairs in one of three stylized avatar conditions: both human in appearance, both non-human in appearance (Crab-Things, created for this study), or one human and one Crab-Thing. Results were consistent with hypotheses, suggesting that closeness and related outcomes can be generated and experienced in VR regardless of the stylized avatar types used in the current study. Exploratory analyses of individual difference variables (personality and attachment) as possible moderators of stylized avatar type effects yielded non-significant findings, supporting the generalizability of findings across key intra- and interpersonal dispositions.

How Does Virtual Reality Compare? The Effects of Avatar Appearance and Medium on Self-Disclosure

Digital communication methods such as social media, texting, video conferencing account for a significant amount of social interaction traffic; however, in the coming decade, virtual reality (VR) is likely to appropriate much of this space from traditional 2D computer-mediated applications. The current series of studies first compared how different digital communication mediums (i.e., voice only, video chat, and VR) affect self-disclosure and then, looking specifically at VR, evaluated how avatar appearance affects self-disclosure. Overall, study one indicated that VR users are more likely to reveal highly personal facts, attitudes, opinions, and emotions than video chat or voice only communication users. Looking only at VR communication, study two demonstrated that individuals with a human avatar are more likely to reveal emotional experiences and highly personal facts, attitudes, and emotions about themselves and their experiences compared to individuals using a robot avatar.

Embodied Gambling—Investigating the Influence of Level of Embodiment, Avatar Appearance, and Virtual Environment Design on an Online VR Slot Machine

Slot machines are one of the most played games by players suffering from gambling disorder. New technologies like immersive Virtual Reality (VR) offer more possibilities to exploit erroneous beliefs in the context of gambling. Recent research indicates a higher risk potential when playing a slot machine in VR than on desktop. To continue this investigation, we evaluate the effects of providing different degrees of embodiment, i.e., minimal and full embodiment. The avatars used for the full embodiment further differ in their appearance, i.e., they elicit a high or a low socio-economic status. The virtual environment (VE) design can cause a potential influence on the overall gambling behavior. Thus, we also embed the slot machine in two different VEs that differ in their emotional design: a colorful underwater playground environment and a virtual counterpart of our lab. These design considerations resulted in four different versions of the same VR slot machine: 1) full embodiment with high socio-economic status, 2) full embodiment with low socio-economic status, 3) minimal embodiment playground VE, and 4) minimal embodiment laboratory VE. Both full embodiment versions also used the playground VE. We determine the risk potential by logging gambling frequency as well as stake size, and measuring harm-inducing factors, i.e., dissociation, urge to gamble, dark flow, and illusion of control, using questionnaires. Following a between groups experimental design, 82 participants played for 20 game rounds one of the four versions. We recruited our sample from the students enrolled at the University of Würzburg. Our safety protocol ensured that only participants without any recent gambling activity took part in the experiment. In this comparative user study, we found no effect of the embodiment nor VE design on neither the gambling frequency, stake sizes, nor risk potential. However, our results provide further support for the hypothesis of the higher visual angle on gambling stimuli and hence the increased emotional response being the true cause for the higher risk potential.