Current research on virtual identities is increasingly concerned with the relationship between the user and his avatar in virtual environments, typically in computer games, for example. This relationship, often referred to as the User-Avatar Bond (UAB), can involve identification, role immersion or idealization, and has the potential to influence our behavior both within and outside of the virtual environment, for example, through changing our perception of self. One key theme is exploring the differences between how a user perceives themselves and their avatar. However, until now there has been a lack of a standardized tool to quantify these differences. It was indeed created by Lukas Blinka and Katerina Škařupová, but only a new international study brings validation of this tool in the form of the User-Avatar Disparity Scale (UADS).
In addition to Lukas Blinka, the study involved researchers from Australia, Germany, Canada and Greece, with a team from the prestigious Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (Taylor Brown and Vasileios Stavropoulos) leading the way.The study involved 477 Czech video game players aged 11-21 who answered a questionnaire consisting of 15 pairs of bipolar adjectives (e.g. "strong-weak" or "active-passive"). Participants first rated themselves and then their avatar on a seven-point scale, with higher scores indicating higher levels of positive traits. The difference between these two scores was used to calculate the degree of discrepancy between the user's self-concept and the image of their avatar. The analysis of the scale was conducted in three phases: first, the authors conducted an exploratory factor analysis to identify the key dimensions and structure of the questionnaire, followed by a confirmatory analysis to verify the results on a validation sample, and finally, they used item response analysis (IRT) to assess the psychometric properties of each item and to determine the optimal measurement model.
A game avatar can represent an ideal version of yourself
The study revealed that the method is able to capture well the discrepancy between the perception of one's avatar and oneself, has a one-dimensional structure and works similarly for both men and women. As a result, players for whom the discrepancy was captured perceived their avatars as "better" versions of themselves, with the largest differences noted for traits such as physical strength, attractiveness and social dominance. For example, participants rated their avatars as more capable, emotionally balanced, and important than how they perceived themselves in real life. These results show that players often create an ideal version of themselves through their avatars, which can serve as a tool to overcome their own perceived shortcomings or as a means to express who they would like to be.
Another finding was that the differences between users and their avatars may be influenced by the pursuit of social acceptance. The choices that players make when designing their avatars often reflect their efforts to conform to socially desirable characteristics. For example, players were more likely to choose traits such as dominance or attractiveness, which are generally considered desirable. This may refer to a deeper psychological pursuit of social acceptance and identity search than simply aesthetic preferences in character creation. Thus, the study suggests that the mismatch between user and avatar is related to how one wants to be perceived by others rather than how one perceives oneself. It follows that acceptance by others can be a driving force in creating a disparity between avatar and player.
What the study has yielded and where to direct further research
The research team has long been investigating the possibility of using avatars in the diagnosis or even treatment of mental disorders - we wrote about another similar study earlier here. The current study extends these possibilities with an additional tool. Avatars can be used in therapy as a tool with which a person is able to explore and align socially desirable traits with their true self. The authors suggest that this approach could be useful, for example, in the context of social anxiety or self-esteem problems. Integrating avatars into psychotherapeutic practice could allow therapists to use these digital representations to promote psychological change and to focus on deeper attributes of avatars than just physical ones. However, the authors cite a number of limitations associated with this study and therefore urge researchers to build on this research to extend the findings with UAB measures. They specifically recommend including clinical samples, ensuring gender balance, and including culturally and otherwise diverse populations.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Recommended Citation:
Brown, T., Blinka, L., Dadswell, K., Kowert, R., Zarate, D., & Stavropoulos, V. (2024). User-Avatar discrepancy scale: a comparative measurement of self and avatar views. Behaviour & Information Technology, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2381603
