How Real Do You See Yourself in VR? The Effect of User-Avatar Resemblance on Virtual Reality Experiences and Behaviour

The aim of this study was to gain better insight into the effects of high and low avatar- owner resemblance on spatial presence, engagement, naturalness and negative effects regarding the user experience in an immersive virtual environment. Participants, between 18 and 32 years old, needed to walk on a 60 m high broken pathway in either a condition in which the shoes in VR matched the shoes they were wearing in reality (high resemblance condition) or not (seeing only generic shoes in a low resemblance condition). The results showed no differences between the conditions, despite that participants within the high avatar- owner resemblance perceived a higher similarity between themselves and their digitally displayed shoes and all liked to customize their shoes in VR. This results indicates that it is not a requirement to develop high avatar-owner resemblance in highly immersive virtual environments in which extreme situations are presented which trigger psychological arousal such as stress.