Stepping into the Right Shoes: The Effects of User-Matched Avatar Ethnicity and Gender on Sense of Embodiment in Virtual Reality

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Do, Tiffany D., Protko, Camille Isabella, McMahan, Ryan P.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Do, Tiffany D.
Protko, Camille Isabella
McMahan, Ryan P.
author_facet Do, Tiffany D.
Protko, Camille Isabella
McMahan, Ryan P.
contents In many consumer virtual reality (VR) applications, users embody predefined characters that offer minimal customization options, frequently emphasizing storytelling over user choice. We explore whether matching a user's physical characteristics, specifically ethnicity and gender, with their virtual self-avatar affects their sense of embodiment in VR. We conducted a 2 x 2 within-subjects experiment (n=32) with a diverse user population to explore the impact of matching or not matching a user's self-avatar to their ethnicity and gender on their sense of embodiment. Our results indicate that matching the ethnicity of the user and their self-avatar significantly enhances sense of embodiment regardless of gender, extending across various aspects, including appearance, response, and ownership. We also found that matching gender significantly enhanced ownership, suggesting that this aspect is influenced by matching both ethnicity and gender. Interestingly, we found that matching ethnicity specifically affects self-location while matching gender specifically affects one's body ownership.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_03279
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Stepping into the Right Shoes: The Effects of User-Matched Avatar Ethnicity and Gender on Sense of Embodiment in Virtual Reality
Do, Tiffany D.
Protko, Camille Isabella
McMahan, Ryan P.
Human-Computer Interaction
In many consumer virtual reality (VR) applications, users embody predefined characters that offer minimal customization options, frequently emphasizing storytelling over user choice. We explore whether matching a user's physical characteristics, specifically ethnicity and gender, with their virtual self-avatar affects their sense of embodiment in VR. We conducted a 2 x 2 within-subjects experiment (n=32) with a diverse user population to explore the impact of matching or not matching a user's self-avatar to their ethnicity and gender on their sense of embodiment. Our results indicate that matching the ethnicity of the user and their self-avatar significantly enhances sense of embodiment regardless of gender, extending across various aspects, including appearance, response, and ownership. We also found that matching gender significantly enhanced ownership, suggesting that this aspect is influenced by matching both ethnicity and gender. Interestingly, we found that matching ethnicity specifically affects self-location while matching gender specifically affects one's body ownership.
title Stepping into the Right Shoes: The Effects of User-Matched Avatar Ethnicity and Gender on Sense of Embodiment in Virtual Reality
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.03279