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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Virtual Real.
Sec. Virtual Reality and Human Behaviour
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frvir.2024.1436752
This article is part of the Research Topic Impact of Virtual Reality on Sensory Neuroscience: Delving into Body Ownership and Agency View all articles

The Impact of First-Person Avatar Customization on Embodiment in Immersive Virtual Reality

Provisionally accepted
Mar Gonzalez-Franco Mar Gonzalez-Franco 1*Anthony Steed Anthony Steed 1,2*Christopher C. Berger Christopher C. Berger 3Ana Tajadura-Jiménez Ana Tajadura-Jiménez 4
  • 1 Microsoft Research (United States), Redmond, Washington, United States
  • 2 University College London, London, England, United Kingdom
  • 3 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States
  • 4 Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Getafe, Madrid, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In virtual reality (VR), users can embody a wide variety of avatars; from digital replicas of themselves, through diverse human body styles and appearance to non-humanoid representations. While choosing a body to inhabit is part of what makes VR such an engaging experience, various studies have shown how embodiment may change the way we perceive ourselves and others both inside and outside VR. In our study, we explored whether first-vs. third-person avatar customization would lead to changes in embodiment. Further, participants were embodied in larger-sized avatars, based on the hypothesis that embodiment would lead to a change in implicit bias towards larger-sized people. Our results show that third-person avatar customization led to a decrease of perceived embodiment of the larger-sized avatar, and that, on the contrary, higher embodiment was associated with a reduction of implicit biases towards larger-sized people in the first-person avatar customization mode. These findings suggest that third-person avatar customization leads to reduced feelings of embodiment, while first-person avatar customization may support more radical body changes.

    Keywords: body ownership, Avatar customization, Bias reduction, Immersive Virtual Reality, embodiment

    Received: 22 May 2024; Accepted: 11 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gonzalez-Franco, Steed, Berger and Tajadura-Jiménez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Mar Gonzalez-Franco, Microsoft Research (United States), Redmond, 98052, Washington, United States
    Anthony Steed, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, England, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.