"Do you get déjà vu": Persuasiveness Effects of Communicating with an Avatar of Similar Appearance in Social Virtual Reality

Meng Ting Shih, Yi Chieh Lee, Chih Mao Huang, Liwei Chan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The similarity effect is a phenomenon whereby people tend to be more influenced by others who resemble them in appearance. It has been found to have many positive impacts, including building trust and promoting collaboration performance. While empirical evidence confirmed that similarity effect operates on screen-based communication platforms, it remains unclear how this phenomenon impacts user perceptions and others' persuasiveness in immersive virtual reality (VR) environments. In this study, we adopted a mixed-methods approach to investigating how interaction with avatars of similar appearance to one's own avatar influences conversations. We operationalized similarity as identicality, moderate similarity, and dissimilarity. Avatars of moderate similarity were found to have the greatest persuasiveness; however, in both identicality and moderate similarity conditions, participants felt it was easier to communicate with and lower eeriness rating to avatars than in the dissimilarity condition. We conclude that similarity effect could be leveraged to support persuasiveness in VR-based communication.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI 2023 - Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450394222
DOIs
StatePublished - 19 Apr 2023
Event2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2023 - Hamburg, Germany
Duration: 23 Apr 202328 Apr 2023

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2023
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityHamburg
Period23/04/2328/04/23

Keywords

  • Appearance
  • Avatar
  • Computer Mediated Communication
  • Similarity Effect
  • Social Virtual Reality

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