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4 UEC Int’l Mini-Conference No.54

The Influence of Non-Creature Human-Like Virtual Avatars on the

User

∗
Luca Malte BARRE , Koichi HIROTA, and Sho SAKURAI
Department of Informatics
The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan

Keywords: VR, Embodiment, Motion Capture, Humanoid Avatars, Proteus Effect

1 Introduction
In Virtual Reality (VR), embodiment is the phe-
nomenon of becoming a virtual representation of
oneself, so called avatars. Previous research has
shown that the appearance of an avatar can influence
the user’s behavior and perception, which is known
as the Proteus Effect. For example, an attractive
avatar can lead to higher engagement in social inter-
actions. While this is true for human avatars, this
phenomenon is rather unexplored for other avatar
types. Therefore, this preliminary research inves-
tigates whether non-creature avatars (e.g., a plant)
that are still human-like can also induce the Pro-
teus Effect. Moreover, this research investigates the
human-likeness of these avatars.
2 Method
For the investigation, a user study using the VR
Twister [1] system and the avatars seen in figure 1,
has been conducted. The participants were playing 3
rounds using a different combination of avatars each
Figure 2: Rating of the desire to be close to the other
time. Each round was followed by a questionnaire player for each condition
about human-likeness, social feelings and appearance
of the avatars.
4 Discussion
The results suggest that non-creature human-like
avatars can induce the Proteus Effect, yet weaker
than human avatars. While the limbs and motion of
the broccoli avatar were rated as most human-like,
the overall rating was very low. This suggests that
these parts were not enough to make an inanimate
entity human-like. However, as this was a prelimi-
Figure 1: Avatars used in the study. L: Broccoli (B), nary study, further investigations are required.
R: Human (H)
5 Conclusions
This preliminary study investigated the human-
3 Results
likeness and possibility of Proteus Effect when us-
Participants reported a higher desire to be closer to ing non-creature human-like avatars and indicates
the other player when both were using the Broccoli that the Proteus Effect can be induced by these
avatar, compared to when they were using the human avatars. It also indicates that different parts affect
avatar and the other player the Broccoli avatar 2. the human-likeness of inanimate entities differently
Other social feelings were similarly rated. and reveals a new direction to investigate.
As seen in the lower part of figure 2, the human References
avatar was rated very human-like while the broccoli
[1] Sho Sakurai et al., ”Effect of the Opponent’s
avatar was rated not very human-like in both condi-
tions. Participants reported that the limbs and the Appearance on Interpersonal Cognition that
motion were the most human-like parts of the broc- Affects User-to-User Relationship in Virtual
Whole-Body Interaction” Journal of Robotics
coli avatar.
and Mechatronics, vol. 33, no. 5, pp.1029-1042,
∗ The author is supported by MEXT Scholarship. 2021.