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The Superhero Pose: Enhancing Physical Performance in Exergames by Embodying Celebrity Avatars in Virtual Reality

Published: 08 October 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Altered virtual reality self-representations can augment human capabilities by exploiting the Proteus effect. For example, previous work has shown that embodying an avatar that signifies super-intelligence, Einstein, enhanced the users’ performance in cognitive tasks. In this paper, we show that embodying an avatar that signifies superior athletic skills enhances the users’ physical performance. We conducted a between-subject experiment (n = 50) where participants played a soccer game while being embodied in a famous soccer avatar and in a generic avatar. We reflect on how self-esteem, embodiment illusion, and presence moderate the Proteus effect. Our results showed that participants embodied as a professional soccer celebrity performed better in the tasks and had a higher sense of embodiment compared to those with a generic avatar. Our results can be used to design engaging exergames and technological interventions to expand human capabilities.

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  • (2024)The Avatar Dressing Room - a VR environment for strengthening physical and psychological embodiment with avatarsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction10.1145/3677386.3688895(1-3)Online publication date: 7-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Physiological and Perceptual Effects of Avatars' Muscularity while Rowing in Virtual RealityProceedings of Mensch und Computer 202410.1145/3670653.3670654(44-52)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2024
  • (2024)Born to Run, Programmed to Play: Mapping the Extended Reality Exergames LandscapeProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642124(1-28)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    NordiCHI '22: Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference
    October 2022
    1091 pages
    ISBN:9781450396998
    DOI:10.1145/3546155
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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    Published: 08 October 2022

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    Author Tags

    1. Proteus effect
    2. avatar embodiment
    3. body ownership illusion
    4. stereotypes
    5. virtual reality

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    View all
    • (2024)The Avatar Dressing Room - a VR environment for strengthening physical and psychological embodiment with avatarsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction10.1145/3677386.3688895(1-3)Online publication date: 7-Oct-2024
    • (2024)Physiological and Perceptual Effects of Avatars' Muscularity while Rowing in Virtual RealityProceedings of Mensch und Computer 202410.1145/3670653.3670654(44-52)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2024
    • (2024)Born to Run, Programmed to Play: Mapping the Extended Reality Exergames LandscapeProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642124(1-28)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
    • (2024)Evaluating how psychological senses and physical motions are affected by avatar shapes in a non-immersive environmentArtificial Life and Robotics10.1007/s10015-024-00979-yOnline publication date: 25-Oct-2024

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