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

TL;DR

This study investigates whether aligning a user’s ethnicity and gender with their VR avatar enhances sense of embodiment, addressing the limitations of non-diverse, white-default avatars in consumer VR. It employs a two-factor, within-subjects design with four avatar conditions (Complete, Ethnicity, Gender, None) and uses standardized measures (SEQ and pESQ) plus an exit survey to capture a broad set of embodiment facets. Results show ethnicity matching increases overall embodiment and related subscales, while gender matching specifically enhances ownership; Self-Location is boosted by ethnicity and Body Ownership by gender, with minimal interactions. The findings have practical implications for VR research and development, advocating for ethnicity and gender customization to improve embodiment and inclusivity in virtual environments.

Abstract

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.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Headshots of the avatars employed in our study, from the Virtual Avatar Library for Inclusion and Diversity (VALID) do2023valid, by ethnicity and gender. The top row features Asian avatars, followed by Black/African-American, Hispanic/Latino, and White avatars in subsequent rows. Female avatars are depicted on the left, while male avatars are shown on the right. For each unique ethnicity and gender combination, there were three distinct avatars for participants to choose from.
• Figure 2: An example of the apparatus. Participants wear a Vive Pro headset, two Valve Index controllers, and three Vive trackers. The Index controllers afford basic finger tracking.
• Figure 3: A depiction of our virtual mirror implementation. A secondary virtual camera is positioned across the Z-axis from the user's head position and rotated based on the user's forward direction reflected across the mirror plane to provide the proper reflection in the mirror.
• Figure 4: Our avatar selection interface enabled participants to customize their four conditions.
• Figure 5: An example of several key tasks from the adapted embodiment procedure. A) Hold your right arm straight forward with your palm facing down. B) Put your left hand with some distance in front of your chest, the palm is facing downwards. C) Take two small steps forward. D) Bend down and place the cube on the floor.